THE GULF RANGERS 
AN HERETOFORE UNWRITTEN CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF EGRET PIRACY, WHICH 
HIDEOUS TRAFFIC PERSISTS IN DEFIANCE OF THE BAN OF THE GOVERNMENT 
T HE Winter season in Florida! Miami, 
always the center of sportsmanlike 
activity, is alive with vacationers. 
Every dock along Biscayne Bay bristles 
with life. There are private yachts, fish¬ 
ing boats of the more professional and 
therefore unpretentious type, saucy motor 
craft, sail boats, into which engines have 
been fitted, cruisers and skiffs. Up Miami 
River, every repair shop and shipyard is 
working under pressure. 
The local shops where Sport goods are 
sold carry extra canvas just now. Sup¬ 
plies are being purchased. Men with 
bronzed faces lay in stocks of ammunition, 
lines, rods, hooks, lures and shrimp bait. 
Every morning fleets of boats disappear 
into the Bay mist and there are whispers 
of great fun off Florida Cape, Ragged Keys 
and Palo Alto. Proof comes, too, along 
about dusk of every warm, lazy afternoon! 
The cruisers come up to the fishing dock, 
and there are alert pictures of hogsheads 
full to overflowing of barracuda, amber 
jack, black bass, bream, gray drum, tarpon 
and the inevitable shark, brought along as 
a souvenir! It is Sportsman’s Haven! 
B UT we will drift lazily up to one of 
the large hotels. A great garden, 
buried in shadows from innumerable 
cocoanut palms, is beginning to glow with 
lanterns. An orchestra plays sentimentally. 
And there are picturesque shops along a 
flowery court, where the tourist’s wife may 
purchase the “unusual things.” 
Milady has just purchased an exquisite 
bag, finished in alligator skin. She is turn¬ 
ing to go. The suave, slightly stout mis¬ 
tress of the shop suddenly calls to her. 
“Perhaps you would like to see this gor¬ 
geous egret feather., They are so rare 
these days. It is difficult to secure them. 
The Government is so strict in such mat¬ 
ters. Such plumes come only from a 
mother bird. The mother must be slaugh¬ 
tered if the plume is secured. The Gov¬ 
ernment has decided that traffic in egret 
plumes must stop. Yes—agents are lo- 
By W. LIVINGSTON LARNED 
FOREWORD: 
cated on the Gulf coast. The Indians are 
no longer permitted to strip the rookeries. 
“This particular plume—Ah, there is a 
story attached! We must examine it in 
the back of the shop. There are so many 
I I T has been the writer’s privilege to 
j set dozen in detail the remarkable 
narrative of the King Party and its 
adventures in the Everglades of Flor¬ 
ida. This human document is now 
known to the readers of Forest and 
Stream. Mr. King, naturalist, scien¬ 
tist, surveyor, civil engineer and all¬ 
round sportsman, is the dominating 
figure in an even more unusual Flor¬ 
ida exploit. The present manuscript, 
which is a transcript from a diary, 
tells of still another trip that was 
taken by Mr. King. That it is closely 
identified with the Government’s earn¬ 
est effort to stop the slaughter of the 
Egret gives it more than passing im¬ 
portance. This thrilling Gulf expedi¬ 
tion will take the reader into a strange 
and dangerous country. But through 
it all, the party found much real sport 
and a new world of fishing and hunt¬ 
ing. We believe that altogether, it is 
just the sort of TRUE story that will 
appeal to our readers. Mr. King is 
now in the ’Glades taking photographs 
to illustrate the various features of 
his diary. [Author’s Note.] 
inquisitive and inquiring eyes! It is always 
best to be careful. One may see the value 
of this wonderful plume at a glance! It 
is a superior product. What is the story?” 
A lowering of the voice and a rather 
anxious glance at the front of the shop. 
“An Indian from the Everglades brought 
the plume in this very piece of faded paper. 
He had never hunted egrets. Alligators 
were his business. The egret had been 
shot quite by accident. He was told of the 
new law. He was very' frightened. He 
would take this plume back to the water* 
wastes. But the Seminole’s wife and chil¬ 
dren were ill—quite ill, with fever. It was 
a very deserving case. Why not quietly 
arrange matters? No one need know! 
It would never happen again. The Gov¬ 
ernment would never find out.” 
Milady is intensely interested. She ex¬ 
amines the plume and at once senses its 
great value. She sees her own image in 
the long glass, and that immaculate aigrette 
is pluming her beauty. She desires it— 
more than anything else in her life. 
There is reticence on the part of the 
shop-keeper. She does not wish to be iden¬ 
tified with an illicit transaction. The pen¬ 
alty is most severe. Will Madam promise 
never to say a word? Will she refrain 
from wearing the plume until she returns 
North If so—perhaps it can be arranged. 
And when the morning comes, the trans¬ 
action is completed. Yes, if Madam will 
pay the money for the plume, it will be 
given by a friend to the poor Indian and 
his destitute, sick family. Madam is made 
to promise, over and over again, that she 
will never breathe a word of the affair. It 
would only-- get Madam into trouble. 
B UT, unfortunately, this odd deal goes 
on, over and over again, during the 
Winter season. A sick Seminole chief 
and his family seem to report for duty 
once a day. There is always and forever, 
a fine egret plume in some shop, wrapped 
in a pitifully' shabby piece of brown paper. 
Who is the go-between? How is this 
traffic arranged? Who are the ringleaders? 
From whence do the plumes come? Where 
are the hidden egret rookeries and what is 
the character of stealthy marauder who 
robs the young, in nest, of the mother bird? 
Why is it that the wardens and the agents 
are just one lap behind this subtle traffic? 
The story on the pages, which follow is an 
answer to evfery question. 
Contents Copyright, 1918 by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
