THE TRAFFIC IN FEATHERS 



wild birds is in connection with the White Egrets. 

 It is from the backs of these birds that the "ai- 

 grettes" come, so often seen on the hats of the fash- 

 ionable. Years ago, as a boy in Florida, I first had 

 an opportunity to observe the methods employed 

 by the feather hunters in collecting these aigrettes 

 which are the nuptial plumes of the bird and are to 

 be found on birds only in the spring. As a rare 

 treat I was permitted to accept the invitation ex- 

 tended by a squirrel hunter to accompany him to the 

 nesting haunts of a colony of these birds. Away we 

 went in the gray dawn of a summer morning through 

 the pine barrens of southern Florida until the heavy 

 swamps of Horse Hammock were reached. I re- 

 member following with intense interest the descrip- 

 tion given by my companion of how these birds with 

 magnificent snowy plumage would come flying in 

 over the dark forest high in air and then volplane to 

 the little pond where, in the heavily massed bushes, 

 their nests were thickly clustered. With vivid 

 distinctness he imitated the cackling notes of the 

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