53 



" No Cast Plumes.'' 



Letter from Mr. H. E. Dresser (author of " The Birds of Europe ") 

 commenting, on November 16th, 1908, on the letter from Mr. 

 Laglaize : 



"All I can say is, that I do not believe the statements in 

 it. When in America many years ago I visited large breeding 

 colonies of Egrets, where at least 500 to 1,000 pairs were 

 breeding, and certainly when the young were hatched I 

 could not have picked up any cast plumes, and I do not 

 believe that the birds moult till after they have left their 

 breeding haunts. Not very long ago, I visited a breeding 

 colony of about 200 pairs of Lesser Egrets in the Herzegovina, 

 in company with Mr. Othmar Reiser, the chief of the Museum 

 at Sarajevo, and we certainly found no cast plumes." 



To this Mr. Dresser adds (March 17, 1911) : 



" I have visited many nesting- places and have never 

 picked up or seen plumes on the ground or in the lining of 

 nests." 



Professor Goeldi writes (March 26, 1911) : 



" The tremendous disorder and dirt on the ground all 

 over the area where there is a colony of Heron-nests 

 defies description, and the idea that osprey-feathers could 

 be picked up there in a proper condition can only be set 

 forth by somebody who never made a step in such a 

 locality." 



" Shot at their Nests/' 

 Letter from Mr. Eagle Clarke, Director of the Royal Scottish 



Museum, Edinburgh, October 18th, 1899 : 



" On the Lower Danube I witnessed the wholesale destruc- 

 tion of Egrets and Herons and Ibises for the sake of their 

 plumes. This was accomplished by a party of plume- 

 hunters from Vienna, who, in one morning, shot 2,000 of 

 these beautiful birds at their nests. I saw it done, and I 

 visited the camp of the hunters, and saw all the poor birds 

 laid out, and the men busily engaged stripping off their 

 dorsal plumes Ospreys, Egrets, or Aigrettes." 



