752 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV 111. 
bird would by this date, have undoubtedly been restricted to the least 
accessible parts of Africa and Asia. 
(h) On economic as well as sentimental grounds, egret farms should be 
legalised and the present ill-considered prohibitive legislation which is 
leading to the extinction of the bird, altered at the next review of the 
Plumage Act Schedule. This can be done by influencing public opinion 
in Europe through the press and through leaders of Society. Photographs, 
propoganda, interviews, etc., are necessary. 
In March last I had the honour of interviewing the then Secretary of 
State for India Mr. Montagu, on the subject. A keen, practical 
ornithologist himself he listened with the greatest sympathy and under- 
took to look into the matter again after consulting local Governments in 
India. But as he is no longer in office, without a fresh effort it is 
probable that little or nothing will be done. 
The chief objection in official circles to the amendment of the 
Schedule in the direction suggested, appears to be the difficulty they anti- 
cipate, on the part of Customs Officers, of distinguishing between parcels 
of shot, i.e., illicit plumes and farmed plumes. This is a bogey and any Reve- 
nue Collector through his staff of Patwaris, Talatis and other Revenue 
officials, can discover in a single season the number and localities of the pro- 
tected Egret breeding colonies or Egret farms, in his district. He can also 
ascertain with equal ease the output in plumes almost to a tola, of each 
colony or farm. With little or no risk of gross error he will be in a position 
to ‘ certify ’ every consignment of plumes from his district. His certificate 
will accompany every parcel and state the weight of the parcel covered 
by it. All the customs authorities need do is to check the weight. 
I mention ‘ colonies ’ as well as farms because though farming egrets 
has not yet spread to my own, the Central Provinces, in one district a 
breeding colony on a riverain island has been protected for 15 years past 
with great profit by a half-witted Mahomedan, who picks up and sells the 
moulted plumes which drop at the colony. In 1910 I found this man 
tending the fire he had lit round the root of the nesting tree to keep off 
the pythons. There were then about 60 couples breeding. Neighbouring 
landlords were shooting his birds and after giving him what protection a 
Settlement Officer could, I left the district in 1912. In 1920 I revisited 
the colony. It has spread to over 100 nests, and established a branch 
colony on the mainland. The watcher had become a man of substance, 
purchased land, married his nieces. He called the colony his village and 
climbed in and out of the nests without the birds appearing to notice his 
presence. Spoonbills, snakebirds, little green bitterns, cormorants and 
purple herons had also joined this happy little republic of ‘ Cloud-cuckoo 
town.’ He sells his output yearly to a ‘ gentleman in Calcutta ’ for Rs. 6/- a 
tola. The moulted plumes from a colony in the compound of the Police 
station house in Raipur, C. P., used to be zealously collected and sold 
till the trees were felled a few years ago. 
All the evidence shows that the rural Indian takes very kindly and 
spontaneously to egret protection and farming. With a little official encour- 
agement, I am convinced that in a few years there would be thousands 
of farms and protected colonies scattered over the Peninsula and that 
public opinion would by then dispose of the murderous gun-man. The 
legislation now in force is an efl'ectual barrier to the realization of 
this much-to-be desired ideal. Well may the Indian egrets pray for 
protection from their friends. 
