68 Bird - Lore 



commercial value, without killing the birds; and that the plumes shed by these 

 birds around the nest or roosting-places are of no commercial value. 



"Affiant further swears that these birds are of a very wild nature, and that 

 it is only during the nesting-season and while the young birds are in the nest 

 that there are any plumes on the birds of any commercial value, and that the 

 kilhng of the birds, in order to obtain the plumes, wall necessarily cause the 

 death of a large number of young birds." 



(From letter of Casper Whitney.) 



"During extended travel throughout South America, from 1903 to 1907 

 inclusive, I journeyed, on three separate occasions, by canoe (i 904-1 907) on 

 the Lower Orinoco and Apure rivers and their tributaries. This is the region, 

 so far as Venezuela is concerned, in which is the greatest slaughter of White 

 Herons for their plumage, or, more specifically, for the marital plumes, which 

 are carried only in the mating and breeding season, and are known in the mil- 

 linery trade as aigrettes. 



"There is Hterally no room for question. The Snowy Herons are killed 

 exactly as I describe. It is the custom of all those who hunt for the millinery 

 trade, and is recognized by the natives as the usual method." 



The following astounding confession of a plume-hunter has been furnished 

 us in the form of an affidavit by Mr. A. H. Meyer, who, for nine years was 

 engaged in the business of killing Egrets in South America for the New York 

 and European milliners: 



"My attention has been called to the fact that certain commercial interests 

 in this city are circulating stories in the newspapers and elsewhere to the effect 

 that the aigrettes used in the miUinery trade come chiefly from Venezuela, 

 where they are gathered from the ground in the large garceros, or breeding- 

 colonies, of White Herons, 



I wish to state that I have personally engaged in the work of collecting 

 the plumes of these birds in Venezuela. This was my business for the years 

 1896 to 1905, inclusive. I am thoroughly conversant with the methods 

 employed in gathering Egret and Snowy Heron plumes in Venezuela, and I 

 wish to give the following statement regarding the practices employed in 

 procuring these feathers : 



The birds gather in large colonies to rear their young. They have the 

 plumes only during the mating and nesting season. After the period when they 

 are employed in caring for their young, it is found that the plumes are vir- 

 tually of no commercial value, because of the worn and frayed condition to 

 which they have been reduced. It is the custom in Venezuela to shoot the 

 birds while the young are in the nests. A few feathers of the large White 

 Heron (American Egret), known as the Garza blanca, can be picked up of a 

 morning about their breeding places, but these are of small value and are 



