42 FOWLS OF THE AIR 



courses is necessary either a new classification and re- 

 naming of the human species, or the abandonment of 

 certain practices which make the old nomenclature in- 

 appropriate. It would be gratifying to our self-respect 

 if, assuming it to be necessary for ladies to display frag- 

 ments of animated nature in their attire, they should 

 adopt the fashion of wearing the carcases of rats ; mice, 

 and other furred marauders on their heads. 



So much for Man the Wise ; now for an instance of 

 Man the Merciful. 



Reference has been made to the ' osprey ' plumes so 

 highly prized in bonnet shops. These delicate sprays 

 have quite as much to do with alligators as with 

 ospreys. They are produced by two or three species 

 of heron of fairy-like beauty. To realise their exceed- 

 ing loveliness let the reader turn to the plates of the 

 Great White Heron (Ardea alba) and the little Egret 

 (Ardea garzetta) given in Parts xiv. and xv. of Lord 

 Lilford's Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British 

 Islands. These are most faithful and life-like repre- 

 sentations of these birds in their nuptial dress. At 

 the pairing season long filiform feathers spring from 

 the back and fall, like a bridal veil, over the snowy 

 plumage. That such exquisite creatures should meet 

 with short shrift on the rare occasions when they visit 

 these islands, is only in accordance with our invari- 

 able treatment of rare birds. John Ruskin wrote the 

 mournful elegy of the last white egret known to have 

 been killed in England, and told how this ' living cloud 

 rather than a bird, with its frostwork of dead silver,' was 



