326



Mr. Hubert D. Astley,



beneath the leaves, at the same time with outstretched neck peering

eagerly over the foliage to see if any prey broke cover on the other

side. It was as if you or I rattled a stick under some hushes and

leaned over the hush to watch for a bolting rabbit !


Perhaps two of the most beautiful pictures I have stored in

my memory are when one day the two egrets stood at the foot of a

group of gorgeous purple irises, the snow-white birds, the purple

flowers, and the green, sword-like leaves reflected in the water (a

combination of colours which would have appealed to the suffra¬

gettes !) ; and when, on an afternoon in June, one of the egrets

performed his tremolo foot movement in shallow water, whilst just

above him, and all but touching him, there showered down great

sprays of a Dorothy Perkins rose, and all this again reflected in

the water—the little snow-white egret and the rose-pink blossoms.

Most beautiful! And amongst the flamingos, they look smaller

than usual in comparison with those tall, long-legged, and long¬

necked birds.


I have seen them dance, with crest erected like the head¬

dress of a Red Indian, pirouetting amongst the ducks on the shore,

and playfully dabbing at them with stiletto bills.


I have sat down on a stone by the pond’s verge, and the two

egrets have come so close to me that I could have touched them—

close, not for food, but evidently for companionship. As Bravan

has written of Arclea helios in Brazil, which he says walks about in

nearly every house, they are “ the dearest little things imaginable.”


When one knows that innumerable numbers of these

beautiful birds have been sacrificed for their “ aigrettes ” or

“ ospreys,” in order to gratify the heartless vanity of Christian (!)

women, I feel almost Hun-like in lack of mercy towards such

females, who deliberately continue to purchase these plumes for

their hats. People plead ignorance on their part. This is not true

in many cases, for I have had women shrug their shoulders at

me in a devil-may-care manner when I have told them that the

“ aigrettes ” represent the shooting of parent birds and the starva¬

tion of nestlings deprived of their source of food. And then we talk

of the inhumanity of the Germans ! In many things our houses are

still built of glass.



