FEATHERS AND HATS 69 
up over his head to his tail, though you cannot really see 
the tail as he is pictured on account of the beautiful 
sweeping cloak of fine feathers that cover it. This bird 
has yellow eyes and feet, beak and legs partly yellow and 
partly black, but is everywhere else white of an almost 
dazzling brilliancy. 
“Many birds wear more beautiful and highly coloured 
feathers in the nesting season than at any other. These 
Herons, both male and female, are pure white all the year 
through, but as the nesting season approaches a change 
comes, —a number of slender plumes grow out from 
between the shoulders and curve gracefully over the tail, 
forming a complete mantle, and it is these feathers that 
are sought by the professional plume hunters to be made 
into the feathery tufts sold as egrets, though the word 
Eliza used by a slip of the tongue, regrets, I think much 
more suitable, for surely any one with a warm woman’s 
heart would regret ever having worn them if she realized 
how they are obtained.” 
“Miss Barker gave my mother hers,” put in Eliza, 
“cause she’d just found out where they came from and 
dassn’t wear it to church ’cause her minister belongs to a 
society that wouldn’t like it. She didn’t tell us why, 
though; she only said regrets was counted stylish in 
Ne York,” 
“Yes,” said Gray Lady, “that is all the idea some people, 
who think themselves very clever, have of honour. To 
give away a feather that one cannot wear, for fear of what 
some one will say, is like giving stolen goods to some one 
who does not know that they are stolen. 
“Not many years ago this Snowy Heron and his cousin, 
