28 BIRDS 



may be decorated, she would at once discontinue their 

 use ; then the shameful traffic in decorations that cost life 

 would cease. She who demands such sacrifice of bird life 

 places herself on an equal footing with house cats, snakes, 

 red squirrels, skunks and other enemies of birds and their 

 preservation. (Fig. 1.) 



The evil spirit of egg-collecting has never taken pos- 

 session of me. My dominating sentiment has been to let 

 nature take its full course in the life history of birds. 

 One of my long bird-picturing trips was ruined by my 

 extending an invitation to a casual acquaintance to ac- 

 company me. My opportunities to pursue my harmless 

 picture-taking of the birds was thwarted by this fellow's 

 going ahead of me and, when we arrived at the rookery, 

 disturbing the birds and robbing their nests of eggs. 

 Whether the eggs were fresh or incubated it was all the 

 same to him. I trust he found out the difference between 

 a good and a bad egg, later. In disgust, I took my de- 

 parture, a wiser, more experienced man. 



An acquaintance of mine visited the celebrated Cuth- 

 bert Rookery in Southern Florida a few years ago. He 

 told me he saw piles of the American Egret ten feet high, 

 where the plume hunters had piled the birds after strip- 

 ping them of their beautiful nuptial and brooding 

 aigrettes a disgrace to our civilization. 



