OSPREY; 
OR, EGRETS AND AIGRETTES. 
OME weeks ago, two ladies—one, no 
matter which, a friend of the writer’s— 
strangers to each other, were travelling 
up to London in a first-class carriage^ 
when a casual remark about the weather, or some 
such topic, led to a long conversation between them. 
This at length turned upon a subject in which, as 
subsequently appeared, both were deeply interested— 
namely, man’s cruelty to animals, and the extermina¬ 
tion, mainly for purposes of fashion, of so many 
beautiful and useful species of birds. One of the ladies 
spoke with such very great warmth on this subject, 
that the other, perhaps thinking the feeling displayed 
not altogether consistent, and inspired with a sudden 
boldness, remarked : “ But, madam, you are yourself 
wearing an aigrette in your bonnet! ” 
“Yes, I knotv I am,” she answered, surprised at the 
observation, and greatly wondering why it had been 
made. 
The other, seeing how the case stood, explained. 
