WADING BIRDS 197 



people care to run the risk. He cites two instances in which 

 a pair of cranes bred in England and raised young. In one 

 of these cases, of demoiselle cranes, the young were liber- 

 ated, but they left the next spring and were never heard 

 from. In 1906 six Soudan crowned cranes were imported 

 to England. They were not pinioned and were allowed full 

 freedom, yet did not leave, and stood the winters well. 

 Not until 191 2 did one pair breed, producing three young, 

 which were killed by a weasel. The following year the 

 same pair again had three young, which died when a month 

 old, it was thought because insects were scarce. 



Herons. The idea sometimes put forth of running heron 

 or egret "farms" to produce aigrette plumes for market 

 is simply a fake to deceive the ignorant and serve as a blind 

 for a cruel and nefarious business, a salve for tender con- 

 sciences. The enormous appetite of herons for fish would 

 make the thing commercially unprofitable, even if herons 

 were induced to breed in captivity. E. A. Mcllhenny is 

 experimenting now with herons in a large flying cage, to 

 see if they will breed in captivity. He says that each 

 bird eats i^ pounds of fish a day on the average, and it has 

 cost $12 per year to feed each bird. 



Egret Farm Fake. T. Gilbert Pearson has carefully run 

 to earth this egret farm myth, and exposed the sham. He 

 has secured affidavits from many well-known travellers 

 and explorers in the tropics who have visited many great 

 breeding colonies. They unite in testifying that they have 

 never seen or heard of a bona fide egret farm. The nearest 

 approach to such a thing was when some men "protected" 

 an egret rookery from other hunters that they might shoot 

 the birds themselves. 



Starting a Heronry. Under suitable natural conditions 

 it is possible, though difficult, to start a heronry on the de- 



