250 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



circulated. This letter professes to give an account of regions in 

 Venezuela and Argentina where, it says, the birds are strictly pro- 

 tected in the nesting- time by " a sort of armed police composed of 

 natives," the impression conveyed being that these vast llanos, covered 

 by the flood-waters of the great rivers, resemble English shooting 

 preserves where patrolling keepers warn off the village poacher. It 

 further states that " the natives in charge paddle their canoes, circu- 

 lating under the trees, and go on picking up the feathers that have 

 fallen into the water during the night"; also that after the breeding 

 season a " valuable amount of feathers " is collected from the aban- 

 doned nests : " The feathers have been skilfully rolled in to furnish 

 and soften the interior. These nest-feathers are of the best kind, for 

 they have been pulled off by the bird itself before laying the eggs." 



In order to test the amount of truth in this document, and in 

 similar stories, the Eoyal Society for the Protection of Birds has 

 obtained the facts of the case from H.B.M.'s Ministers in Venezuela 

 and Argentina, and from well-known scientific authorities in other 

 parts of the world where Egrets breed and " Osprey " hunters are at 

 work. The letters are printed in the Society's Leaflet No. 60, 

 " Moulted Plumes." The following extracts contain the pith of the 

 matter : — 



Sir Vincent Oorbett, H.B.M. Minister at Caracas, writes (Jan. 14th, 

 1909) : — " From the evidence before me I have no manner of doubt 

 that the vast majority of the Egret plumes exported to Europe are 

 obtained by the slaughter of the birds during or about the breeding 

 season, and that no effective regulations exist or indeed, owing to 

 local conditions, can exist for the control of this slaughter, and that 

 the letter of Mr. Leon Laglaize, of July 29th, 1908, gives a completely 

 erroneous impression of the conditions under which the industry of 

 collecting the plumes is conducted in Venezuela." 



The information enclosed, coming from several correspondents, 

 states : — ■ ' In the Tucacas district the coast is one continuous man- 

 grove swamp intersected by creeks. At certain times of the year 

 flocks of Egrets, returning from their feeding-grounds, pass over 

 these swamps in the evening. Shooting parties, armed with all sorts 

 of nondescript firearms, wait for them up the creeks, and when over- 

 head fire a volley right into the middle of the flock. The dead and 

 wounded birds are then collected, the plumes torn out, and the bodies 

 thrown back into the water. The large 'garceros' are those of the 

 Orinoco frequented by the birds during certain months of the year. 

 The owners no doubt do their best to protect the birds, not from any 



