From off the gentle head they cut the crest, They loose the wedding[1] plumes which veil the wings And rend the beauty-tuft from out the breast-- Then each a mangled body downward flings. The dimmed white forms strew all the blossomed ground, While clustered trees but bear the wailing young; Their plaintive little voices shrilling, sound From swiftly chilling nests, once gayly swung. Unfathered broods! In vain with hunger-calls They grieve through woeful hours the helpless air; Unmothered nests! How cold the darkness falls On harmless, tender heads, uncovered there. They live the painful night and feebly stir At dawn; with famine shine the golden eyes; They gape their mouths and seem to hear the whir Of mother-wings speed past through empty skies. And no more piteous sight the sun may see Than where those parent birds lie dead; nor wakes A sadder tone than the forsaken plea Of famished broods that o'er their silence breaks. Fainter and fainter sink the whispered cries, As wanes the life and creeps the deadly chill, Till wings are numb, and closed the hungry eyes, While droop the downy heads, _and all is still_. Footnote: [1] The wedding plumes, which are esteemed the most valuable of all, are worn by the birds only during brooding time. Hence the special reason for hunting egrets at that season. SPONGES. A sponge when brought to the surface by the diver is a fleshy-looking substance covered with a firm skin whose openings appear and disappear at intervals. When the diver cuts it the interior looks like raw meat with numerous canals and cavities. The first thing they do is to remove the flesh, and this must be done at once, since otherwise putrefaction would set in, which would destroy the elasticity. This leaves merely the skeleton of the animal which has to be further cleansed before it is ready for the market. The skeleton is nearly related in structure to silk, and this helped to settle the ancient dispute as to whether sponges were animal or vegetable. Their stationary life gave reason to the belief in their vegetable nature, while they multiply, like plants, by overgrowth and budding. They puzzled scientists for centuries, and one authority regarded them as worms' nests. In reality the sponge is a colony of little animals called polyps which occupy a sort of apartment house together, rearing families just as other animals do. The surface of a sponge is covered with little holes, as you have observed, that are larger at the top than at the bottom, while the whole mass contains a system of channels. When the animal is alive water is kept flowing constantly through these channels by means of minute, hair-like appendages, which the little polyps agitate. The water thus drawn in brings with it the food.