CRUEL FATE OF THE EGRETS.
FLORIDA is rapidly losing its flock of herons. The white egret is being slaughtered into extinction for the sake of the beautiful white feathers on its back, which, when plucked and placed on a flinty-hearted woman's hat, become an aigret. The scale on which the massacre of this beautiful bird is being carried on is almost incredible. An idea of it may be gained from the fact that one egret will furnish only one-sixth of an ounce of plumage feathers, and yet at a public sale in London less than a year ago, more than 11,000 ounces of osprey plumes were offered for sale. This meant that more than 66,000 egrets had been put to death for the sake of their plumes, that some fair dame might be more gaily decorated. The most lamentable feature of the slaughter of the beautiful and innocent birds is that the feathers grow at the time when the egrets are nesting and breeding. The best plumes are taken from the upward tuft at the back, which is developed at the breeding season, though feathers are, of course, taken also from the wing and the breast. They are common to both sexes, and it is impossible to distinguish between the male and the female. An egret is shot; the few coveted feathers are torn from its back; its body left to rot on the ground, and the young ones perish of starvation.—Boston Globe.