Vol. X. 

 1910 



] Mellor, Desivuction of Birds. AJ 



plumes, and is one of the greatest bird destruction countries, 

 where firms are located that do nothing else but equip parties 

 to go out hunting, and purchase plumes and feathers for the 

 market. The " Consular Report" for 1908 shows that from one 

 place alone, Ciudad Bolivar, there were exported 10,612 lbs. of 

 feathers and plumes, in addition to the plumes of the White 

 Heron, being nearly 5 tons of feathers from one port in one 

 year, for the whims of woman's fashion. 



Until recent years nothing was known of the domestic affairs 

 of the American Flamingo, which is the most brilliant in 

 plumage of all large birds, until their nesting haunts were 

 discovered in 1904 by Mr. F. M. Chapman, in one of the outer 

 Bahama Islands, where the birds were in large masses. But no 

 sooner did Mr. Chapman let the world know of his find than the 

 plume-hunters were there, and nearly exterminated the birds for 

 their brilliant feathers, but, happily, before they were quite 

 swept off the face of the earth Mr. Chapman .secured protection 

 for the Flamingoes. 



No better instance of the destruction of species for the 

 millinery market can be given, says Mr. Buckland, than the 

 massacre of the shore-birds of the Atlantic coast of the United 

 States of America. Twenty-five years ago the shore-birds 

 swarmed all down this coast in incredible numbers, but to-day 

 only a few scattered colonies survive, being rigidly guarded by 

 wardens. A few years ago immense flocks of water-fowl 

 populated the lake region of Southern Oregon, and teemed 

 along the Pacific Coast, but to-day these waters are almost 

 depopulated, as hundreds of tons of Ducks have been killed each 

 year merely for the green wing feathers ; the bodies are thrown 

 away. White Herons, Swans, Geese, Pelicans, Ibises, and hosts of 

 other species were slaughtered for fashion. The largest breeding- 

 grounds of the Grebe, whose silvery breast feathers are prized 

 by women for ornamentation, were on Lakes Klamath and Tule, 

 and during the last six or seven years there were between 20 

 and 30 camps of professional killers and skinners stationed 

 along the lakes ; men were engaged solely in killing Grebes ; the 

 skins were collected in waggons three times a week. This 

 continued until the Government, at the instance of the Oregon 

 Audubon Society, in the spring of 1908, had Lakes Klamath, 

 Harney, and Malheur set aside as bird reservations. On 31st 

 May, 1909, the State Warden of Lake Malheur Reservation 

 reported that " very few Grebes are nesting in the reserve this 

 year — mute testimony of the inroads of previous market 

 hunting." 



Mr. Bryan, in his report to the United States Government 

 regarding the destruction of birds carried on among the low 

 coral islands in the North Pacific by Japanese plume-hunters, 

 says that in the short space of six years they had exterminated 



