Page 153 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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EXTERMINATION FOR WOMEN'S HATS 131
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' Toillustratethecomparativelysmallnumberofdeadfeatherswhich are collected, I will mention that in one year I and my associates shipped to New York eighty pounds of the plumes of the large heron and twelvepoundsofthelittlerecurvedplumesofthesnowyheron. Inthis whole lot there were not over five pounds of plumes that had been gatheredfromtheground—andthesewereoflittlevalue. Theplume- birds have been nearly exterminated in the United States and Mexico, and the same condition of affairs will soon exist in tropical America. This extermination will come about because of the fact that the young are left to starve in the nest when the old birds are killed, any other statement made by interested parties to the contrary notwithstanding.
"I am so incensed at the ridiculously absurd and misleading stories that are being published on this question that I want to give you this letter, and, before delivering it to you, shall take oath to its truthfulness."
Here is the testimony of Mr. Caspar Whitney, of New York, formerly editor of Outing Magazine and Outdoor America:
"During extended travel throughout South America, from 1903 to 1907, inclusive, I journeyed, on three separate occasions, by canoe (1904- 1907), on the Lower Orinoco and Apure rivers and their tributaries. This is the region, so far as Venezuela is concerned, in which is the greatest slaughter of white herons for their plumage, or more specifically for the marital plumes, which are carried only in the mating and breed-
ing season, and are known in the millinery trade as 'aigrettes.'
"There is literally no room for question. The snowy herons are killed exactly as I describe. It is the custom of all those who hunt for the millinery trade, and is recognized by the natives as the usual method.
Here is the testimony of Mr. Julian A. Dimock, of Peekamose, N. Y., the famous outdoor photographer, and illustrator of "Florida Enchant- ments";
"Iknowagoodlynumberoftheplume-huntersofFlorida. Ihave camped with them, and talked to them. I have heard their tales, and
even full accounts of the ' shooting-up of an egret rookery. Never has a man in Florida suggested to me that plumes could be obtained without killing the birds. I have known the wardens, and have visited rookeries after they had been 'shot-up,' and the evidence all pointed to the ever- lasting use of the gun. It is certainly not true that the plumes can he obtained without killing the birds bearing them.
"Nineteen years ago, I visited the Cuthbert Rookery with one of the men who discovered the birds nesting in that lake. He and his partner had sold the plumes gathered there for more than a thousand dollars. He showed me how they hid in the bushes and shot the birds. He even gave me a chance to watch him kill two or three birds.
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' I know personally the man chiefly responsible for the slaughter of thebirdsatAlligatcrBay. Helaughedattheideaofgettingplumeswith- outkillingthebirds! IwellknowthemanwhoshotthebirdsupRogers River, and even saw some of the empty shells left on the ground by him.
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