MAN AS AN ENEMY OF BIRDS 171 



The egret. One of the most expensive plumes used 

 in the milliners' trade is the aigrette, which sells at 

 about forty dollars an ounce. Six birds are required 

 to furnish an ounce of feathers. These plumes are 

 borne b^^ the bird only during the nesting-season, 

 and the birds must be killed then to obtain them. 

 The reports that they are picked up after being 

 shed by the bird is absolutely untrue. The birds 

 nest together in large numbers and so when once 

 found are easily destroyed. The method by which 

 the plumes are obtained is most sickening and 

 horrible. The adult birds are shot and the plumes 

 are stripped from their backs, often before the 

 birds are dead. Thus the nestling birds, after the 

 parents are killed, are left to die slowly of expos- 

 ure and starvation. And in one case a still sadder 

 chapter was added to this pitiful story. The Audu- 

 bon Societies were making efforts to protect the few 

 remaining colonies in the South and had appointed 

 Mr. Guy Bradley as warden to guard these colonies, 

 which were protected by the laws of the State. 

 While doing his duty guarding this colony he was 

 killed by plume-hunters. 



Egg-collecting. The collecting of birds' eggs has 

 been one cause of the decrease of biijds. In former 

 years large numbers of eggs of water-birds, which 

 nested in large colonies, were collected along the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and sold in the markets, 

 but this is now almost entirely a thing of the past. 



