THE MARSHES OF MALHEUR 99 



No, not quite such a multitude, for there was 

 no snowy gleaming of egrets in the throngs over- 

 head. The plume-hunter had been before us, and 

 the glory of the lake was gone. That story is one 

 of the tragedies of bird-life, and vividly told in 

 William L.Finley's account of "The Trail of the 

 Plume-Hunter," in the *' Atlantic Monthly" for 

 September, 1910. He says, writing of his and 

 Bohlman's journey into the Malheur country in 

 1908: — 



"We had hunted where one might think no 

 human being had ever been, but long before we 

 had traveled over these apparently unknown re- 

 gions, plumers had preceded us. We followed in 

 their trails. We camped where they had camped. 

 We had traveled hundreds of miles exploring the 

 haunts where white herons used to live, but up to 

 the summer of 1 908 we had not seen a single one 

 of these birds. 



" This is historic ground for the bird man. In 

 the early seventies the well-known ornithologist, 

 the late Captain Charles Bendire, was stationed 

 at Camp Harney on the southern slope of the 

 Blue Mountains, straight across the valley from 

 where we stood. He gave us the first account of 



