946 JOURIS'AL, BOMBAY NATDRAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



discovered. The birds have a high market value and the owners 

 would not wilfully ill-treat valuable property. It is stated that the 

 eyes of some-birds used to be sewn up when they were transported in 

 crates from one place to another to prevent them from fighting. The 

 procedure now followed is to blindfold the birds by means of blinkers. 

 The faimers now use every possible means of keeping their valuable 

 property in the most favourable conditions. Decoy birds wth their 

 eyes sewn up used to be employed in decoying wild egrets to a place 

 where by an arrangement of nets they were caught but this method 

 of catching birds has fallen into dessuetude since the introduction of the 

 farming system. 

 (iv) The food of the birds is small fish. If small fish are not available 

 large fish are cut up into small pieces. The birds are usually fed twice 

 a day. A supply of water is always kept in the pens. The space 

 allowed to each bird on a farm is about 30-40 cubic feet. Compared 

 with the size of the average cage of the tame parrot this is ampb. 

 The cages are moreover in the open and accessible to air and light. In 

 each pen each bird has its own beat or stand and keeps off intruders 

 therefrom. The birds required for starting farms are not now caught 

 by decoys. They are purchased from breeders from other farms. 

 During the summer the farmers are careful to keep the pens cool by 

 frequent sprinklings of water. 

 (v) Reports are unanimous that moultings take place four times a year 

 though it is stated that the birds only breed twice a year. The moults 

 are twice in summer and twice in winter. The two summer moults 

 give a light return. The way in which the dorsal plumes are pulled 

 out is not at all cruel. The bird is held in one hand and the feathers 

 are pulled out with the other. At the very most there is not more 

 than a momentary twinge of pain. An officer who is a keen orni- 

 thologist asserts that the abstraction of such plumes in season eausss 

 no more pain than the pulling of a hair out of one's head. 

 The trade in the plumes of farm bred egrets is not really affected by the prov- 

 isions of the Wild Birds Protection Act VIII of 1912. The possession of egrets 

 during the close season is not prohibited under that Act provid3d they are not 

 captured or killed during such season. The law says it is an offence only in 

 respect of those animals which had not been captured before the commencement 

 of the close time. It clearly therefore permits egrets to be captured in the 

 cold weather and allowed to breed on a farm and it also permits the trade in 

 the plumage of such birds in the farm. '■' 



The only real difficulty is the prohibition of the export of plumes. If this 

 prohibition could be strictly enforced, the trade would be absolutely extinguished. 

 The smuggling of feathers out of India still proceeds on an extensive scale in 

 spite of the vigilance of the Customs Authorities and as the demand since the 

 close of the war has re\dved, smuggling is again rife. 



It is incontestable that before the inception of the system of breeding egrets 

 the birds were ruthlessly slaughtered for their plumes and that this barbarous 

 practice has now practically ceased as a direct result of the far more economical 

 and lucrative process of the production of plumes by means of egret farms. 

 In Sind it would be an easy matter to ensure that the relaxation of the embargo 

 on exports was confined to the feathers of the particular species of egrets which 

 are farm- bred, viz., the Ijittle Egret or Harodias garzetta. The plumes of this 

 species are at present collected in Sind almost exclusively from farm-bred 

 birds. But as the farming system may not exist to a similar extent in other 

 parts of India, the best method of controlling the trade would be to re([uire all 

 farms to be Hcensed and to allow the transmission of feathers under a pass. 



