ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. (Hi 
' vulgarism as applied to a creature so superb, 
so utterly and transcendently splendid. I 
saw it —in a way to be sure of it —only 
once. Then, on an island in the Hillsbor- 
ough, two birds stood in the dead tops of 
low shrubby trees, fully exposed in the 
most favorable of lights, their long dorsal 
trains drooping behind them and swaying 
gently in the wind. I had never seen any- 
thing so magnificent. And when I returned, 
two or three hours afterward, from a jaunt 
up the beach to Mosquito Inlet, there they 
still were, as if they had not stirred in all 
that time. The reader should understand 
that this egret is between four and five feet 
in length, and measures nearly five feet from 
wing tip to wing tip, and that its plumage 
throughout is of spotless white. It is pitiful 
to think how constantly a bird of that size 
and color must be in danger of its life. 
Happily, the lawmakers of the State have 
done something of recent years for the pro- 
tection of such defenseless beauties. Hap- 
pily, too, shooting from the river boats is no 
longer permitted,—on the regular lines, 
that is. I myself saw a young gentleman 
stand on the deck of an excursion steamer, 
