A STUDY OF FEATHERS. 



MARY M. CALDWELL. 



I spent 2 years in the far Wes L . My 

 home was not 20 miles from Seattle and 

 near Lake Washington. My husband and 

 brother had been quail hunters in Ken- 

 tucky, so they were not long in discovering 

 many ducks in the lake and grouse in the 

 great forests back of us. There was large 

 game, too. Bear had twice been seen near 

 our house, but in that kind of game I was 

 not interested, except to keep as far from 

 it as possible, I did become much inter- 



turned from a day's sport I had a double 

 interest in seeing the game bags emptied ; 

 that of a good dinner and adding new 

 specimens to my collection of feathers. 



I came in possession of a quantity of 

 rare feathers in an unexpected way. There 

 came to our house one day a man who had 

 lived and hunted in that country many 

 years. I mentioned my collection of feath- 

 ers, and he told me he had saved a great 

 many to use for making artificial flies for 





'£ 





PINTAIL DUCK FEATHERS. 



ested in the birds, not as an ornitholo- 

 gist nor for the adorning of bonnets, but 

 because the birds were beautiful. I treas- 

 ured the feathers as I did the rare mosses 

 of that country. When the hunters re- 



trout fishing. He brought them to me, 

 beautifully arranged, each variety tied up 

 separately and wrapped in paper. They 

 completed my collection and thereafter I 

 took less interest in the game bag. 



24 



