186 Sydney Porter—Notes on the Barer Foreign S of thills


not a little bored by tbe whole business, but though they eventually

became the masters of all the other birds they always respected their

strange attendants.


The Snowy Egret


If I were asked what I thought the most beautiful thing in the world

I would say a Snowy Egret, that lovely embodiment of grace and

purity, an ethereal creature of soft, supple curves and dazzling whiteness.

But if any reader of this chapter seeks out one of these birds in a

zoological garden or elsewhere and sees a bird which has been in close

confinement he will be sadly disillusioned. For to compare a captive

Egret with a wild one is like making a comparison between a typical

London “ charlady ” and “ Venus de Milo ”, for a Snowy Egret after

it has been in captivity for any length of time and fed upon artificial

food, soon loses its grace and “ tightness ”, the dazzling white plumage

gets soiled, and the bird takes on a very dejected demeanour


When seen beside its native swamps and rivers, nothing more

lovely can be imagined, especially in the breeding season, when the bird

is a mass of filmy nuptial plumes, which alas ! have cost so many

millions of birds their lives. These are known as “ ospreys ” in the

plume trade, which is not quite so dead as we are led to believe. The

plumes grow from the top of the head, the base of the neck, and the

upper back, and when the bird is displaying the whole body seems to be

enveloped in a mist of these beautiful feathers.


There is really only one way in which to keep these lovely creatures

and that is in a state of semi-liberty ; in a large walled garden or at

least in one which has a wire fence all round where the birds may

wander with one wing clipped so that they cannot fly away. There

the birds will find a great deal of their own food such as worms and

various insects and it is there that one can see him as he should be,

a fairylike creature of surpassing grace and purity.


To those who are not familiar with this bird I would say that it is

a very small Heron, with a body not much larger than a good-sized

Pigeon, with a long, curving neck and long black legs and pale green

feet, the whole of the plumage being of a dazzling whiteness.


As visions fade with the passing of youth there remains in the



