186 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



Again, certain landowners in Venezuela make 

 a practice of leasing out the shooting privileges of 

 their property to feather hunters. The egrets 

 are not farmed. They are shot and killed in the 

 breeding season for their plumes just as thou- 

 sands have been shot and killed elsewhere. The 

 plumes are torn from the backs of dead birds, 

 not clipped from live ones or picked up in the 

 muddy lagoons and marshes. Egret farming, as 

 a commercial venture, does not exist. 



Commercial Downs and Their Uses 



Although the market for ornamental plumes 

 has now shrunk into insignificance, there are cer- 

 tain other types of feathers which always will have 

 great commercial value. These are the upholstery 

 feathers, the downs of commerce which go to fill 

 mattresses, pillows, and quilts. Only the small 

 breast feathers of the duck, goose, and swan were 

 utilized in former times, but to-day, so populous 

 has grown the world and so insistent is it upon 

 household comforts, enormous quantities of 

 feathers from the barn-yard fowl are used. These 

 last, however, are employed in making mattresses 

 and low-grade pillows, whereas other downs, 

 especially down from the eider-duck, go into the 

 lighter quilts and pillows. 



About a century and a half ago great multitudes 



