ThirstyFish

The Snowy Egret is a small white heron distributed in the Americas. It is similar to the Little Egret found in the old world. It usually hunts in shallow water, feeding on fish, crustaceans, insects and small reptiles.

Like the Great Egret, the Snowy Egret was also almost hunted to extinction due to demand by hat makers. Protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, its population has rebounded.

• I never saw a wild thing
• sorry for itself.
• A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
• without ever having felt sorry for itself.
• -- poem "Self Pity", by D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic. He wrote on issues related to relationships, emotional health, spontaneity, sexuality, submission and instinct, while criticizing the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization.

I'm not sure whether animals feel self-pity, but they do seem to feel sorrow when they lose their offspring, or their play-hunt-life partners. Currently, there is no scientific consensus on whether or not animals are capable of emotion.

Song of the Day: Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush (1986)