226 
NATURE NOTES. 
There at the altar kneels the bride, 
Pure joy and spotless womanhood. 
Ah, pluck that dainty veil aside ! 
Her hair is red with blood ! 
Hark ! through the hymn of praise, a cry 
Of birds in bridal dress that die. 
Beside the infant’s cot there stands 
A mother robed for evening rout. 
The fury in her jewelled hands 
Would cast her own child out ! 
She has but killed, for fan and lace, 
A heron’s offspring in its place. 
There in the land of sun and flowers 
With orange scent upon the air. 
When Egrets build their bridal bowers. 
They take them plumes to wear. 
Such plumes as with true love in sight, 
^^'ill tell the fluttering heart’s delight. 
They mate, and happy is the breast 
That feels one day its softness stirred 
By that new life within the nest. 
Loud calls the parent bird ; 
The very savage in the wood 
Must share the joyance of the brood. 
But hands, whom Fashion arms with greed 
And hearts made cruel by the Chace, 
These know our English ladies need 
Some little borrowed grace. 
The merchant unto murder dooms 
A whole bird-nation for its plumes. 
Fierce shouts are heard, and up there springs 
A palpitating cloud of sound. 
The shadows of ten thousand wdngs 
klove trembling on the ground. 
And seem in silence to entreat 
For mercy, round the murderers’ feet. 
Gun answers gun, the cloud that rose 
Lies warm and wounded underneath. 
In all the heart’s appalling throes 
Of agony and death ; 
From quivering flesh the ruffians tear 
The feathers for my Lady’s hair. 
There falls a hush upon the wood 
Where gun made echo unto gun. 
But still the branches drip with blood. 
And, fainting for the sun. 
Unfed, unsheltered now by breast. 
The children perish in the nest. 
