8 



THE OSPREY 



Fig. I. Snowy Heron, or Egret (Ai-iicu i itnJiiiissiiiia) in weddinK dress. The plumes, or 'aigrettes,' 

 grow from the centre of the bark, and are remosed, with the skin from which they grow, by a circular 

 rut with ,1 knife. 



matter stood when Mr. Brewster shot his specimen 

 five hundred and fifty miles from its nearest known 

 habitat. As this was during the height of the spring 

 migration, and just after a great 'bird wave,' it was 

 natural to suppose that the bird was a wanderer that 

 had gotten into unusual company and been led far 

 from home. Nothing much was added to the meagre 

 knowledge of its distribution during the next fifteen 

 years. 



In 1895, the revised A O. U. Check List gives its 

 geographical distribution as " .\rizona, from Phoenix 

 and the Painted Desert south to Guaymas, Sonora, 

 westward, casually to Agua Caliente, California. Ac- 

 cidental (?) at Colorado Springs, Colorado." This 

 gives it a regular habitat of le.ss than two hundred 

 miles square, and makes the following record all the 

 more singular and unexpected. 



In South-central Colorado, just east of the base of 

 the Spanish Peaks, lies a desert almost as barren as 

 that of Southern Arizona. Just where the waves of 

 this desert roll up against the green hillsides and 

 forest-crowned slopes of the mountains lies the little 

 town of Rouse Junction Here Mr. N. R. Christie 

 has found Bendire's Thrasher as a 110/ iincoiiivtoii stiiii- 

 iner rrsidc-nt. On June 2, i8g6, he found a nest with 

 two eggs too far advanced for preservation. Four 

 days later he took two sets of three eggs each. On 

 June 13, he found a nest with four young. In 1897, 

 he saw a pair in May, but found no nests. 



Skins made by Mr. Christie of these birds have 

 been thoroughly identified, so there can be no doubt 

 of the correctness of his wonderful record. 



Thus there is one more added to the list of Colorado 

 breeders that of late has been growing quite rapidly. 



THE WEARING OF HERONS' PLUMES OR 'AIGRETTES.' 



FR.ANK M. ( :H.^PMAN, .WIERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 

 I Published by the Audubon Society of the State of New York..] 



NO form of feather adornment has been and is humane woman in the land would raise her voice in 



more harmful in its effects than the wearing protest against a fashion which threatens with ex- 



of 'aigrettes,' or Herons' plumes. These tinction one of the most beautiful of animate creatures, 



dainty, graceful feathers, unlike the distorted skin of Those interested in the .sale of Herons' plumes often 



some poor Hummingbird or Warbler, carry with them deceive purchasers by telling them that these feathers 



no suggestion of death; and many a woman on whose can be procured without injury to the bird, or that 



bonnet they are placed is wholly ignorant of the un- they are found after being shed ; both are absolutely 



speakable cruelty the taking of these feathers entails, false statements which, nevertheless, delude the un- 



If each plume could tell its own sad history, every informed into being participants of a crime against 



