59 



CHAPTER THE FOURTH. 



"THE STORY OF THE EGRET." 



The spokesman of the plume- trade brings two direct accusations, 

 equally unwarranted and equally incorrect, against the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds. One is concerned with 

 Australia, the other with India. A series of photographs showing 

 " The Story of the Egret " was sent to the Society by Mr. A. H. 

 Mattingley, Hon. Sec. of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 

 The photographs had been exhibited with useful results in the 

 large towns of Australia, and it was hoped that this pictorial 

 representation of facts might have as great an effect in England. 

 The hope has been to a large extent realized, the photographs, 

 and the lantern slides made from them, having attracted much 

 attention. 



" The Feather Trade " says : 



" The photographs referred to and issued by the Royal Society for the 

 Protection of Birds have nothing whatever to do with the collection of 

 plumes for trade purposes. They were obtained in Australia, where there 

 is not, and never has been, any collection of Egret feathers for trade pur- 

 poses." p. 27. 



4 ... The photographs, to which the term ' bogus ' might reasonably 

 be applied." p. 28. 



This is the account given by Mr. Mattingley in the " Emu," the 

 official organ of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, 1908. 

 So far as is known, no one in Australia has contradicted it : 



:c . . . . Paddling through the timber we were able to 

 ascertain the extent of the heronry of White Egrets, and 

 computed their number to be about 150, the remnant of a 

 once larger colony, which, we were informed, must have 

 totalled originally about 300 birds, but which, owing to the 

 demand for their back plumes for ladies' hats, had been 

 decimated by plume-hunters. The only method by which 

 the hunters are able to obtain Egrets' plumes in"quantities 

 is to shoot the birds on their nests, since at this period they 

 are more readily approached, and allow a person to get within 



