Reports of Field Agents 399 



Indian, a while Cracker, and a negro could not endure the swamp, neither 

 could plume-hunters. 



Georgetown, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, are respectively 

 headquarters for financing plume-hunters. A notorious illicit whiskey-dealer, 

 or 'blind tiger,' named Palmer, in Georgetown, sends out the plumers. I have 

 not been able to get anything definite as to Savannah dealers, beyond rumors, 

 but these are singularly persistent. 



Early this year, Arthur Lambert, formerly fined three times for shooting 

 up a rookery on the preserve of' the Santee Gun Club, near McClellanville, 

 was indicted before the United States District Court at Spartanburg, charged 

 with trespass and violating a court order. He was convicted and sentenced 

 to eight months in jail. This kept him out of mischief until the plume season 

 was over. 



Jim Mitchum, who has figured in a half-dozen encounters with wardens, 

 together with two confederates, Jake Jordan and a negro, were in jail, await- 

 ing trial on a charge of assault and battery with intent to kill. Late in spring 

 they secured bond, but not until the Herons had left the rookeries. They have 

 not yet been tried, owing to the work of a shrewd lawyer. 



In Savannah, Georgia, the leading plume-hunter was Ward Allen, who had 

 been indicted in the Georgia courts and heavily fined, most of the fine being 

 suspended during good behavior. So Allen could not stir, and in fact was con- 

 spicuously present in Savannah during the entire spring and summer. There 

 are several charges against him in South Carolina, and he is apparently afraid 

 to cross the Savannah River. 



These men represent the principal destroyers of Herons between North 

 Carolina and Florida. 



This being the situation, I concluded that the Association could save the 

 hire of wardens for certain colonies located late in the season; and the result 

 has justified my belief. Watch was kept on each one of them; and conditional 

 arrangements were made at a number of rookeries. With the exception of 

 one bird, a Snowy Egret, killed on James Island, there were no birds shot at 

 the various rookeries, all of which were visited repeatedly by citizens well 

 known to me, who lived near-by, and also by myself. 



The only Herons known to have been killed, aside from the one mentioned, 

 were shot by roving negroes for food. Two of these men were caught and fined 

 in Colleton County, and recently, two in Charleston County. 



Annual meetings of the various agricultural societies, held along the South 

 Carolina and Georgia coasts, w^ere attended by your agent and talks made to 

 planters, who are, to a man, enlisted in the cause of saving Herons. Boatmen 

 and fishermen are, as a rule, likewise enlisted in the same cause and render aid 

 by furnishing information as to rookeries and violations of law^ 



Several years ago, through the efforts of the National Association of Audu- 

 bon Societies, the light-keepers along the coast were made game-wardens 



