FEATHER INDUSTRIES 185 



been slaughtered and some of their species brought 

 to the verge of extinction. 



Every few years or so strange stories come to 

 our ears of regions where there are egret farms, 

 where the birds are successfully reared for their 

 plumes on a commercial basis. First there is 

 such a farm in India ; then it has moved to Ven- 

 ezuela, or to Egypt, or to Brazil. The plumes are 

 said to be clipped from the backs of the snowy 

 birds in much the same manner that feathers are 

 plucked from an ostrich. No pain or flow of blood 

 is reported to attend the operation, and the birds 

 thrive and multiply vigorously under the influence 

 of domestication. 



Such tales are pure figments of the imagination. 

 An egret farm, in the sense implied, has never ex- 

 isted and never will. It cannot. The birds do 

 not breed freely in captivity. In fact there is 

 only one possible record of a pair rearing young in 

 a "zoo," and there have been thousands main- 

 tained in "zoos" during the last hundred years. 



The stories have persisted, however. They are 

 warped translations of the truth enlarged upon 

 by plume hunters and those who are interested in 

 seeing the plumage trade revive. A few rooker- 

 ies exist in southern Brazil where great quantities 

 of cast-off plumes may be picked up near the de- 

 serted nests at the close of the breeding season. 

 But these are fragmentary, frayed, and worn bits 

 of feathers, of little or no commercial value. 



