. Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land . young many a time in the nest, hang on withmy eyelids in the gusts of wind, and make some successfulexposures. The Egrets were quite timid. Perched on high stubs,singly or in small parties, they would crane their necks atthe approaching boat and i]y all too soon. If one happenedto perch lower down and we were able to approach it closelvunder cover, it would be off the instant we showed ourselvesand before I could get an unobstructed ^-iew with the photography, it must be admitte
. Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land . young many a time in the nest, hang on withmy eyelids in the gusts of wind, and make some successfulexposures. The Egrets were quite timid. Perched on high stubs,singly or in small parties, they would crane their necks atthe approaching boat and i]y all too soon. If one happenedto perch lower down and we were able to approach it closelvunder cover, it would be off the instant we showed ourselvesand before I could get an unobstructed ^-iew with the photography, it must be admitted, was difficult and vex-atious. But it was a wonderful sight, well worth travelling far to THE EGRET 143 see. Upon any sudden noise, hundreds of these differentherons would spring from the trees everywhere about. Thenthey would return and alight upon the tree-tops, the delicatesnow-white plumes from the backs of the Egrets strayingout bewitchingly in the breeze. Nearly all day we paddled. EGRET WATCHING APPROACH OF BOAT about amid the lacustrine forest, and I revelled in the sightsand sounds of this wonderful place, which is probably thelargest, and perhaps the only large, Egret rookerv in NorthAmerica. The only reason that it exists to-daj^ is because itis guarded by armed wardens who will arrest, or, if necessary, 144 WILD WINGS shoot, any person found upon the property with a gun. Andwhere is it ? May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,if I reveal the Egrets secret. This whole business of the slaughter of the white herons —to say nothing of other birds — for their plumes for millinerypurposes is one that every lover of nature and ever} personof humane feeling who understands the case will regard asno less than infamous. This is one of the moral questions —to be classed with the opium traffic and the slave trade — towhich there is but one side. The origin of this trade is ignor-ance on the one hand and greed for money on the other, andthere is not one t
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjobh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds
