192 IN BIRD-LAND 



they themselves, it may be innocently, are the 

 cause of more misery and disaster amongst the 

 feathered tribes than all the sportsmen in the 

 world. 



The Little Egret, from which the " Osprey " 

 plumes are obtained, is an instance of the terrible 

 suffering undergone by birds to gratify those who 

 favour a wicked fashion. I do not believe that 

 any right-minded women, if they were to see or 

 read about some of the cruelties practised by the 

 collectors, would ever encourage such abominations 

 by buying and wearing feathers. The accounts we 

 read about these cruelties are hard to believe as 

 possible in these times ; but when we consider 

 that they are written by men who would not 

 swerve from the truth to make them sound pathetic, 

 we realise what agony the poor birds undergo. 



Just two instances may be given. Mr. Gilbert 

 Pearson at the World's Congress on Ornithology, 

 held at Chicago in 1897, in speaking about Osprey 

 plumes said : " I visited a large colony of Herons 

 on Horse Hummock (Central Florida), on April 

 27, 1888. Several hundred pairs were nesting 

 there at the time. . . . While quite close to the 

 breeding-grounds, I climbed a tall gum tree and 

 was able, unobserved by the birds, to survey the 

 scene at leisure. . . .Three years later I again 



