IO 
Osprey ; or } 
get them, the bird must be slain when pairing or about 
to pair, or when breeding; but those who engage in 
this business know that to obtain a good supply with 
little trouble the birds must be taken when the breed¬ 
ing season is well advanced. During the greater part 
of the year the egrets live singly, in pairs, and in 
small flocks; but when nesting they form communities, 
like rooks and r^ulls, and our own heron. The egret’s 
heronries are formed on low trees or bushes, or on 
reeds growing in the water, and the nests, some¬ 
times to the number of three or four hundred, are 
placed close together. The feather-hunters consider 
it a rare piece of good fortune when they discover 
one of these breeding places, when the birds that at 
other seasons live scattered over a wide expanse of 
country are found massed together. The best time 
to attack them is when the young birds are fully 
fledged, but not yet able to fly ; for at that time the 
solicitude of the parent birds is greatest, and, forgetful 
of their own danger, they are most readily made 
victims. I have seen how they act when the heronry 
is approached by a man ; they take wing and hover 
in a cloud over his head, their boldness, broad wings, 
and slow flight making it as easy as possible to shoot 
them down. And when the killing is finished, and 
the few handfuls of coveted feathers have been plucked 
out, the slaughtered birds are left in a white heap to 
fester in the sun and wind in sight of their orphaned 
young, that cry for food and are not fed. 
