ORNITHOLOGY. 



i37 



in the past, and it seems almost im- 

 possible that any woman who reads 

 current bird literature or the public 

 press can fail to know the extreme 

 cruelty attending the traffic in wild- 

 bird plumage. The American women 

 who are still willing to wear the 

 plumes of the white Herons sometimes 

 offer as an excuse that they are not 

 taken from native Herons ; but it 

 is immaterial whether the birds were 



false. Human skill cannot reproduce 

 a feather, and, after the breeding sea- 

 son, all herons' plumes are worn and 

 ragged, and are, therefore, unfit for 

 use. 



Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley, of Mel- 

 bourne, graphically describes the hor- 

 rors he witnessed at a heron rookery 

 in New South Wales, which had been 

 raided by plume-hunters and verified 

 his statements by the camera.* 



BROODING EGRET— THE DORSAL TRAIN OF NUPTIAL 

 PLUMES ARE HANGING OVER THE TAIL FEATHERS. 

 Photographed by A. H. E. Mattingley. 



killed in America or in some other part 

 of the world. The same cruelty is 

 practiced in the Eastern Hemisphere 

 as in the Western. The paltry price 

 in money that is paid for the plumes 

 is not to be compared to the price paid 

 in blood and suffering. 



Women must remember: 



That white herons wear the covet- 

 ed plumes only during the breeding 

 season. 



That the parent birds must be shot 

 in order to obtain the plumes. 



That the young birds in the nests 

 must starve, in consequence of the 

 death of the parents. 



That all statements that the plumes 

 are manufactured or are gathered after 

 being molted by the adult birds are 



* Reprinted by permission from "The Emu," the official or; 



"Notwithstanding the extreme heat 

 and the myriads of mosquitos, I deter- 

 mined to revisit the locality during my 

 Christmas holidays, in order to obtain 

 one picture only — namely, that of a 

 white crane, or egret, feeding its 

 young. When near the place, I could 

 see some large patches of white, either 

 floating in the water, or reclining on 

 the fallen trees in the vicinity of the 

 egret's rookery. This set me specula- 

 ting as to the cause of this unusual 

 sight. As I drew nearer, what a spec- 

 tacle met my gaze — a sight that made 

 my blood fairly boil with indignation. 

 There, strewn on the floating water- 

 weed, and also on adjacent logs, were 

 at least fifty carcasses of large white 

 and smaller plumed egrets — nearly 



:an of the Australian Ornithologists' Union. 



