BY TTIE WAYSIDE 
11 
hesitated to try how things taste I ate 
some myself. I could not think it pos¬ 
sible that birds would eat them, they 
are so decidedly peppery. Still, when 
the robins made their appearance early 
in March they were frequently found 
around the rows and avenues of pepper- 
trees in great numbers eating the berries 
with as much apparent relish as they 
i show for cherries in Illinois. And the 
largest number of robins I ever have 
seen indeed so great was the number 
that it was truly a marvel to see them, 
were gathered together along a quiet 
avenue of great pepper-trees flanking 
orange groves on either side. Since 
many of the beries had fallen the birds 
were quite as numerous on the ground 
as on the trees. Judging from the sound 
of them feeding and moving about, it 
seemed more like an assembled flock of 
black-birds, and I took them to be hun¬ 
CONFESSIONS OF 
The misleading statements issued by 
the Broadway milliners engaged in the 
traffic of Heron plumes are answered by 
a man who has had unlimited experience 
with the aigrette hunters in Venezuela. 
He lives on Staten Island and is engaged 
in business in New York City. He can 
easily be seen or communicated with by 
any one wishing to learn further facts 
Fort Wadsworth, S. I. 
New York, April 19th, 1911. 
Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, 
Sec’v National Association of Audu¬ 
bon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New 
York City. 
Dear Sir— 
My attention has been called to the 
fact that certain commercial interests in 
this city are circulating stories in the 
I 
| 
gry “birds of passage.” Furthermore 
I observed that till we left for farther 
north, at the end of March, I had not 
heard a robin’s song. 
One afternoon a red-hroated fly 
catcher was perched on a top branch 
of a cactus, of the kind which Mr. Lutfe 
er Burbank has since made thornless. A 
gentleman from Wisconsin, wintering in 
Riverside, and staying at our hotel, 
and who was fond of this park and its 
birds, sat under a tree nearby as 1 pass¬ 
ed on. I told him of the fly-catcher 
Up he sprang, with the eagerness of a 
hoy of twelve, and regardless of the 
“Keep off,” went close to the sitting 
bird to make sure its throat was red. It 
did not stir, and he told me afterwards 
it did not stir for two hours. It had 
selected this strange resting-place for 
its afternoon siesta. 
(Continued on pave 15.) 
A PLUME HUNTER 
newspapers and elsewhere to the effect 
that the aigrettes used in the millinery 
trade come chiefly from Venezuela, 
where they are gathered from the 
ground in the large garzeros or breed¬ 
ing colonies of white herons. 
I wish to state that I have personally 
engaged in the work of collecting the 
plumes of these birds in Venezuela. This 
was my business for the years 1896 to 
1905, inclusive. I am thoroughly con¬ 
versant with the methods employed in 
gathering egret and snowy heron plumes 
in Venezuela and I wish to give the fol¬ 
lowing statement regarding the practices 
employed in procuring these feathers: 
The birds gather in large colonies to 
rear their young. They have the 
Continued to page 16 
