“ A few years more of reckless slaughter during the breeding season and the white Herons will be classed among the extinct birds, the number of which is far too rapidly increasing.
Dealers often state that ‘aigrettes’ are manufactured, but this is not so; man has never been able to imitate successfully these beautiful plumes; all that are offered for sale have been torn from the backs of the smaller white Herons. Even the stiff plumes, which are known in the trade as ‘stubs,’ are not manufactured but are the plumes of the larger species of white Herons. ”

“ Comparison of these pictures shows the difference in the poses of the bird during incubation and while brooding.
A third photograph reveals the two little Terns just as they had climbed into the nest after their long swim for safety. Cold they must have been and they are cuddling close together to keep each other warm,—so close indeed that one may be seen to have his arm about his brother’s or sister’s neck. ”

“ The wearing of ‘aigrettes,‘ or plumes from the white Herons. whether native or foreign, has now become a question at ethics which every woman must decide for herself. It matters not a whit where the plume comes from, the fact remains the same that the woman who wears one is party to a cruel wrong and the plume itself becomes a badge of inhumanity and is no longer a thing of beauty. ”

“ But the Terns saved their eggs from the Hood by bringing fresh nesting material and raising the height of their home; though whether the action was performed with a definite object or was merely such a display of the nest-building instinct as is not infrequently seen during incubation, it is difficult to determine. ”

“ When man comes, slaughters and exterminates, Nature does not restore.”
This story of a single Florida colony is the story of what has happened in all of Florida, the Gulf coast of the United States, along the Mexican and Central American coast, both on the Atlantic and Pacific sides, and has extended into South America. From the enormous numbers of Herons’ plumes that are annually sold in the London feather market there is no doubt that plume-hunters are at work wherever the white Herons are found. ”

“ The food of Herons consists fo shrimp, small fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, and life found along the shores and in swamps. Economically, so far as known, they are neutral or harmless, but may prove to be highly beneficial when a scientific study of their food has been made. ”

“ With photographs from nature
“CRAIK—craik—craik!” screamed the old Black Tern, in anxious quavering note. as we crossed the low prairie to the particular pond that she had consecrated by making her home on its weedy waters. ”