Reports of Field Agents 



293 



Until a few years ago, the White Egret (Herodias egretta) was quite abundant 

 about Malheur lake, but after a month's search we saw but two of these birds 

 and found no sign of their nests. In 1898, a plume hunter told me he made hun- 

 dreds of dollars in a day and a half, shooting White Herons on Lake Malheur. 

 He has often made as high as $400 and S500 a day killing these birds. This 

 shows that White Egrets were very plentiful on the lake. The slaughter was 

 continued, till now the birds are practically extinct. 



THE WESTERN GREBE 



The greatest sufferer in the West at the hands of the market hunter. The snow-white breasts of these 



birds are used for capes, muffs and other purposes. Photographed by Finley and Bohlman 



This hunter is the type of the professional plumer who is responsible for 

 the great decrease in numbers of our plumaged birds. He began hunting in the 

 earlv seventies; he has hunted Herons and other plumed birds in Louisiana, 

 Florida, Mexico, the West Indies, and up and down the Pacific Coast. In 1886- 

 1889 he shot on Tulare Lake in California, often making S400 and S500 a day 

 killing Herons. Whenever he could not make more than Si 20 by nine o'clock 

 in the morning, he said he would seek better hunting grounds. He not only 

 followed the trade of the plume hunter in the summer, but for years he was 



