B Y THE WA YSIDE 
11 
Aigrettes. 
The curse of beauty has numbered the 
days of this most dainty and graceful of 
the Herons. Twenty years ago it was 
abundant in the south, now it is the rarest 
of its family. The delicate “aigrettes” 
which it donned as a nuptial dress were 
its death warrant. Woman demanded 
from the bird its wedding plumes, and 
man has supplied the demand. The 
Florida Herons have been mercilessly 
shot down at their nesting grounds, the 
coveted feathers stripped from their 
back, the carcases left to rot, the young 
in the nest to starve .”—Frank M. Chap¬ 
man , “Birds of E. America .” 
The annual meeting of the Wisconsin 
Audubon Society was held at Madison 
in the Unitarian church, May 14th. 
Owing to the rainy evening there were 
only a few present, but they were all 
much pleased with the illustrated talk 
on English birds in their native haunts, 
given by Mr. Herbert Maude of Chelms¬ 
ford, England. The slides were made 
I from photographs taken by himself and 
some of them showed great ingenuity on 
the part of the photographer in obtain- 
I ing successful views of the nest and eggs, 
or of the bird on her nest. 
The usual reports were listened to and 
the officers elected. Dr. R. H. Denm- 
ston, president; Hon. GeorgeRavmer, first 
vice president; Mr. J. M. Olin, second 
vice president; Dr.'J. C. Elson, third vice 
president; Mrs.; Joseph Jastrow. fourth 
vice president; secretary and treasurer, 
Mrs. Thwaites, 270 Langdon St. Madison; 
secretary and treasurer of Children’s De¬ 
partment, Miss Edna S. Edwards, Apple- 
ton. 
Directors—Mrs. W. T. Allen, Mrs. F. 
K. Conover, Mrs. F. J. Turner, Mrs A. P. 
Morris, Mr. A. B. Clauson, Mr. F. S. 
Brandenburg, Miss Louise Claude, Miss 
Therese Favill, Miss Helen Kellogg, Miss 
M. E. Hazeltine and Mr. C. F. Yoshies, 
all of Madison. 
Honorary Vice Presidents—Dr. C. R. 
Van Hise, Mrs. R. M. Bashford, Mrs. F, 
M. Brown, Mrs. R. M. LaFollette, Dr. E. 
A. Birge of Madison; Dr. H. W. Abraham 
of Appleton; Mrs. G. A. Buckstaff of 
Oshkosh; Mrs. F. G. Bigelow, Prof. I. N. 
Mitchell, Mrs. G. W. Peckham of Mil¬ 
waukee; Prof. E. C. Perisho of Platteville; 
Mrs. W. H. Upham of Marshfield, Mrs. 
W. R. Turner of Columbus; and Prof. 0. 
B. Zimmerman of Charles City, Iowa. 
The bird study classes have not been as 
well attended this year owing to the very 
cold and backward spring but Mr. F. S. 
Brandenburg has accompanied those who 
did wish to go out on Saturday or Sun¬ 
day mornings. 
Mrs. R. G. Th waites, Sec. 
Prof. W. S. Marshall 114 E. Gorham 
St. Madison, Wis., is the custodian of the 
Audubon Society’s illustrated lecture. 
It is rented for two dollars and express 
to any society or club in the state, It is 
typewritten and can be easily ; read while 
the colored slides are shown. A small 
admittance fee can be charged to defray 
expenses. 
There was at least one pleasant effect 
of the continued cold this spring. The 
Warblers, those beautiful little transients 
who passthrough to their summer homes 
farther North during the first two weeks 
in May, stayed during the whole month 
and many of them into June. We sus- 
spect they thought North had come part 
way to meet them. 
