194 IN BIRD-LAND 



with its wings, its neck was arched, the feathers on 

 its head were raised and its bill was buried in the 

 blood-clotted feathers of its breast, where a gaping 

 wound showed that the leaden missile had struck. 

 It was an awful picture of pain. Sorely wounded 

 this Heron had crawled away, and after enduring 

 hours of agony had died, the victim of a foolish 

 passion. Young Herons had been left by scores 

 in the nests to perish from exposure and starvation. 

 These little sufferers, too weak to rise, reached 

 their heads over the nest and faintly called for 

 the food which the dead mothers could never 

 bring. 



" It is bad to see such sights from any cause, but, 

 when all this is done merely to gratify fashionable 

 women's vanity, it becomes still worse. These are 

 but instances of the destruction of bird-life. Unless 

 something is done to stop this awful slaughter it is 

 only a question of a few years before the Herons 

 not only of Florida but of the whole world will be 

 exterminated." 



Mr. Howard Saunders says of our sea-birds : 

 "These birds have been slaughtered under 

 circumstances of horrible barbarity, to provide 

 adornments for ladies' hats. I have watched, day 

 after day, a flotilla of boats procuring plumes for 

 the market : one gang of men shooting, and 



