2 is Letters, littracts, Sot ices, ^-c. 



setting ofl' the silvery white i)luniage of u uninbcr of Ej^rcts 

 as they stalked about in scareli of food. That, however, is 

 now a thing of the past. Last year the natives got au 

 inkling tliat money was to be raade^ and shot a good inimber 

 of the birds. The prices realized astonished them, and this 

 spring every man who conlJ sljoot at all was on the hjok- 

 out. A terrible slaughter began on the arrival of the 

 Avretehed Egrets, and continued, until from Suey Kao, 70 

 miles u[) I'ivei-, to lling hua, sonu' (iO miles S. of Eooehow, 

 tlie country may be said to have been swept clean. 



T will give you one or two cases only, of all the sickening 

 details told of the massacre. 



A " heronry " of Herodias (jarzetta, which used in summer 

 to be a beautiful sight from the river, with the white plumage 

 of the birds showing out in strong contrast to the dark 

 green foliage of the two huge trees in which their nests 

 were placedj has been entirely depopulated. 



Further down river was a " heronry " of H. (jarzetta 

 v.'ith a sprinkling of H. eulophotes in a village. The local 

 mandarin put up notices Avarning people against molesting 

 the birds. The " shooting-men/' however, found out that 

 the birds flew in a certain line down a nari'ow valley to their 

 feeding-groniuls. Selecting an afternoon with a stiff breeze 

 that not only deadened the reports of the guns, but nuule 

 the birds fly low, a party of five or six stationed themselves 

 at the end of the valley, and shot down the whole colony. 

 One of these men told me that the villagers were very angiy 

 because of the bad smell that arose from the deccufnuj Ijodies 

 of the nestliiifjs. 



A native caught lurking about with a gun near a " heronry " 

 in the suburbs of tlie city was severely bambooed and had 

 his gun confiscated by the maudarins. I asked the man 

 who told me whether that would protect the birds. He said 

 " No, we wait for them outside ; " and added, with a chuckle, 

 '' they must come out to feed sometimes." 



Of course here w'e cannot do anything in the matter, and 

 it is doubtful whether the ucav Game Preservation Society 

 5;lartcd in Shanghai to prevent the export of I'lieasanls' skins, 



