848 James Bucklaad. 



return. But a habit implanted in these wanderers, ages since, 

 impels them to journey annually to an ancestral home for the 

 purpose of reproducing their kind. This is the plume-hunter's 

 opportunity. It is doubly his opportunity, because then most of 

 a bird's natural fear of man disappears under the stress of provi- 

 ding for and protecting its young. It is t h e n that the old birds 

 are shot, and rifled of their plumes. The young gape and cry, but 

 no food comes. Presently, the wailing ceases, and a solemn 

 silence broods over the wilderness of empty trees. 



This is why the traffic in plumes is immeasurably the most 

 destructive of all agencies now operating to bring about the 

 extermination of birds. It precludes the possibility of new birds 

 being produced to keep up the stock. It is, in fact, a harvest of 

 death, because it is reaped on the sowing-fields of life. 



As an example of the disastrous effects of this abominable 

 practice of killing birds during the breeding season, I will take 

 the case of the white heron, and from the many official returns 

 in my possession, showing the extent of the annual slaughter of 

 this bird for its plumes, will select two. They are taken from 

 the Diplomatic and Consular Report of the Trade and Commerce 

 of Venezuela, and show the number of egrets killed in that 

 country during the years 1898 and 1908, respectively. In 1898, 

 the number reached the high total of i 538738. In 1908, is had 

 fallen to 257 916. That is to say, the effect of ten years 

 slaughter during the breeding season was to reduce the supply — 

 I use round numbers — from one million and a half to two 

 hundred and fifty thousand. 



These figures cannot be considered too gravely. They 

 furnish complete evidence, not only of the rapid diminution of 

 the species in Venezuela, but also complete evidence — unless 

 ^ I protection comes in time to sane the bird — that what has 



/ happened in North America and' in China — in both of which 



countries the egret has been practically exterminated — is going 

 to happen in South America, and, for the matter of that, in every 

 country in the world in which the unfortunate bird is found. 



Such a grand bird as the American jabiru was not made for 

 vulgar desecration, yet for the last ten years there has been a 

 growing demand in the millinery market for its wing and tail 

 feathers. The London plumage market alone receives annually from 

 Venezuela about 30 000 of these quills. At this rate of destruction, 

 as the species was never numerous, it hardly seems likely that 

 it can last many years more. But for one thing, it would have 

 been exterminated long ago. Unlike the white heron, which stays 

 by its young until the shot pierces its breast, the jabiru scents 

 the danger-boding odour of man, and keeps well beyond the range 

 of a fowling-piece. This wariness on the part of this giant stork 

 has always necessitated the use of a rifle in its destruction. But 



