Correspondence.



319



In reply to my particular query if moulted feathers are gathered, he answered

that some such are used by the Indians for decorative purposes, but none of

commercial value are ever found on the ground, the season of slaughter being

while the birds are nesting, when the plumes are in full lustre and life. With

the decrease of the Egret, or little white Heron, native gunners from San

Fernando and Bolivar in the employ of the millinery interests are beginning to

kill other birds of attractive plumage, which previously had been unmolested-

several of the larger Herons, the Cranes, Spoonbills, Ibises being thus prej-ed

upon. In short, he added, that the entire bird colony is becoming perceptibly

reduced in numbers.” (pp. 261-262).


Finally Mr. Witney speaks of the Apure-Arauca delta, and the southern

reaches of the Apure itself as “the Egret-shambles” (p. 263).


The passages quoted supply evidence, which may not be disregarded, that

Egrets ancl other birds carrying plumes of commercial value are decreasing in

numbers and that moulted Egret plumes are valueless to the trade. Further

comment is superfluous. R. I. POCOCK.


FOR LOVE OF BIRDS—AND SCIENCE.


SIR,—I see the subject of the indiscriminate capture and traffic in birds,

and their condition in the dealers’ shops, on which I dwelt in the May number

of the Magazine, has not been taken up by members as I hoped it might have

been, for it is a very real and great evil, and ought to appeal to the sense of

justice for which England is famous. I would ask those who deprecate or deny

the statements I make to examine into the matter for themselves, as I have

done. To visit as many bird-shops as possible, not merely in London, and

ascertain if the birds are kept in sanitary and humane conditions ; and to be at

the docks to see the birds arrive from abroad by millions, an increasing stream.

By the side of this wholesale traffic and enormous waste of bird-life, the English

bird-catcher and his hungry children sink into obscurity. I should, at the same

time, be very sorry to let it be imagined that in the protest I make against the

bird-shops in England I mean to “tar them all with the same brush.” There

are of course honest and intelligent dealers, who value and understand about

their birds and do their utmost to keep them in health and cleanliness, but

these, as I have said, are alas ! quite in the minority, and they would be the

first to deplore the existing state of things. Even they, if they keep a large

stock of birds, must find it extremely difficult to give to each the attention and

care it requires. Imagine the daily task of cleaning out such a multitude of

bird-cages ! Add to this the ornithological knowledge required to provide each

bird with its proper food supply, and the work of supplying the food. The care to

ensure freshness and the labour of seeing to all the different supplies—of egg-food

and ants’ eggs and mealworms and insect-food and the different kinds of grain.

A small army of workers, busy the whole day long, would be needed to look after

hundreds of birds ! I have sometimes wondered if a properly organized bird-



