TOTIPALMATE BIRDS, HERONS, STORKS 47 



plumes which grow from the back of both males and females during 

 the breeding-season. These feathers form the ghastly trophies which 

 thoughtless women wear in their hats, and to procure which the most 

 abominable cruelties have been perpetrated. Though the sickening 

 details of the slaughter of these birds have been published broadcast, 

 the use of these feathers for decorative purposes unhappily still 

 continues, though since Her Majesty the Queen has set the seal 

 of her disapproval in their use the practice may slowly die out. 

 For every pair of adult birds killed, one pair of nestlings dies a lingering 

 death from starvation. Time v/as when these beautiful birds abounded 

 in the Florida Keys, to-day this region is desolate. The same course 

 of brutality has been followed, with scarcely less deplorable results, 

 with other species in other parts of the world. 



From the Herons and Egrets we pass to the Bitterns. Of the 

 last-named group the best known perhaps is the species generally 

 referred to as the Common Bittern (Plate IV. fig. 6). This bird is 

 remarkable for the curious booming noise which it makes as the 

 shades of evening are closing in. Like the Herons, it is a bird which 

 delights in desolate places — great swamps and reed-beds. There was 

 a time when the Bittern was to be met with commonly in Great 

 Britain, but drainage and that pest the "collector " have done their 

 worst, so that, at most, but a few stragglers are now to be met with 

 in our islands, and these are always promptly shot down. 



The Bittern is remarkable for the wonderful way in which its 

 plumage harmonises vnth its surroundings ; and, as if aware of 

 this, the bird seeks safety in moments of danger, not by flight, but 

 by sitting close, with upstretched neck, and beak pointing skywards, 

 among the reeds. So closely does it then blend with the tangle 

 around it, that detection is well-nigh impossible. The ordinary rest- 

 ing attitude of this bird is that depicted in Plate IV. fig. 6. Another 

 unusual feature about the Bittern is the wide fringe of long feathers 

 which runs down the front of the neck. These are so long that they, 

 when extended, give this region an enormous appearance. When 

 depressed, they meet behind, and on this account the back of the neck 

 is clothed only in short down. 



But the Bitterns and Herons have attained a certain amount of 

 notoriety from the fact that the middle claw bears along its inner 



