52 



always breed in the swamps where the water is either dirty 

 or strongly coloured with vegetable matter, the feathers 

 even if undamaged are likely to be so soiled and discoloured 

 as to be only fit for inferior purposes, or for dyeing. 



"Certainly after the Government in Demerara had enforced 

 the Ordinance for the Protection of Wild Birds, forbidding 

 their slaughter under a penalty of 24 dollars for each bird or 

 part of a bird, no trader has found it worth his while to 

 collect plumes in the harmless manner described by Mr. 

 Laglaize, even in the various convenient localities where 

 large heronries were situated." 



" A Worthless Contention." 



Letter received by Mr. Albert Pam from Dr. Hagmann, for 

 many years junior curator of the Para Museum, dated May 24th, 

 1908: 



"It is a worthless contention on the part of importers 

 that the Egrets are not killed for the purpose of obtaining 

 the feathers. An absolute proof of this is the fact that the 

 Egrets in China, which are closely related to the South 

 American kind, have been almost entirely exterminated." 



On June 23rd, 1908, he wrote : " As I told you in my 

 letter of the 24th May, the Egrets are shot in Brazil, and in 

 the whole of the rest of South America, for obtaining their 

 feathers. In most cases, the men who shoot these birds are 

 the collectors of rubber and other products, who look upon 

 the collection of osprey plumes as a lucrative secondary 

 branch of their collecting business. We can state, without 

 fear of contradiction, that practically all the Egrets are 

 killed, that is to say shot, in order to obtain their feathers, 

 because only in this manner can the feathers of the adult 

 birds, which are the most valuable, be obtained. There can, 

 therefore, be no doubt that the birds are being more than 

 decimated, and will soon be exterminated. It would, there- 

 fore, be a greatly desirable achievement if the English Parlia- 

 ment could take steps to prevent the slaughter in such huge 

 quantities of these Egrets." 



