46 



which produces the coarser feather, are the principal victims. 

 As only a few plumes from the backs of the birds are taken, 

 one can readily see what terrific slaughter is required to meet 

 the demands of the markets of the world. The worst feature 

 about the business is that the birds are killed during the 

 mating and breeding season. Already the result is manifest 

 in the rapidly diminishing numbers of Egrets that frequent 

 the garceros, the name given to the places where they nest 

 and rear their young." " Up the Orinoco and Down the 

 Magdalena," by H. J. Mozans, A.M., Ph.D. 1910. 



Mr. Mozans, it is clear, heard and saw nothing of " picked 

 up " plumes. 



" The beauty of a few feathers on their backs will be the 

 cause of their (the Egrets') extinction. ... The graceful 

 plumes which they doubtless admire in each other appealed 

 to the vanity of the most destructive of animals, and they 

 are doomed because the women of civilized countries con- 

 tinue to have the same fondness for feathers and ornaments 

 characteristic of the savage tribes." " A Naturalist in the 

 Guianas," by Eugene Andre : 1904. 



Evidence of Mr. Albert Pam. 



Mr. Albert Pam, a member of the Council of the Zoological 

 Society of London, who has extensive knowledge and experience 

 of Venezuela both as traveller and as merchant, said in evidence 

 before the House of Lords Committee : 



" The birds are undoubtedly being slaughtered in very 

 large numbers and in the breeding season. If you wished 

 to collect feathers you would have to walk several hundred 

 yards for each individual plume you picked up, and in the 

 jungle of the Amazon it would be an extremely difficult 

 occupation. . . The idea of their being moulted feathers 

 may be absolutely set aside." 



Mr. Pam points out that an export of 1,000 kilogrammes of 

 " osprey " feathers, which is, according to the traders, the average 

 amount received from Venezuela in a year, would mean the 

 picking up of at least two million and a half separate feathers 



