51 



contents of his letter fully coincide with what I have always 

 understood was and is the custom in Argentine territories 

 of killing these birds (Herons and Egrets) at nesting-time 

 for their plumes." 



Further evidence is contained in a letter, dated November 

 29th, 1908, from Mr. J. Quelch, B.Sc. (Lond.), formerly curator 

 British Guiana Museum, Adviser to the Government for the 

 granting of licences to kill Wild Birds, and examiner of all collec- 

 tions thus made, late C.M.Z.S., South America : 



" My experience, directly as an eye-witness, of the condi- 

 tions under which osprey plumes are obtained in Tropical 

 America for export, is so different from that of Mr. Laglaize, 

 that it is difficult to know what to think of his statements. 



" During a residence of seventeen years in British Guiana, 

 and with an experience of travel ranging from the Eastern 

 Orinoco to the borders of Surinam, and inland to Brazil and 

 Venezuela, along the eastern upper waters of the Amazon 

 and the Orinoco, I have never known nor heard of any such 

 method of collection as that described by Mr. Laglaize. 



Demerara. 



" Until the Government in Demerara put into force the 

 stringent provisions of the Wild Birds Ordinance, a brisk 

 trade was carried on by many people in the export of bird- 

 skins, and largely of osprey plumes. These feathers were 

 obtained by killing the Egrets in the breeding season, and 

 cutting off the skin of the back on which the plumes were 

 borne. These sections, in fact, are those sold in the trade 

 at home, and they are so scarce just at present as to be worth 

 as much as from 3s. IGd. to 4s. each. 



" There can be little or no doubt that all prized osprey 

 plumes are thus obtained, whether the birds are shot with 

 a gun, or with the much more effective small poisoner 

 arrows of the natives, by which the remaining members of 

 the heronry are not scared away by noise ; for even if shed or 

 fallen plumes are really collected from the nests, or from the 

 ground or water beneath the heronry, since these birds 



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