y are shot. As the plumes of these birds are worth
nearly their weight in gold, egrets have become extinct in some parts
of the world.

The export of plumage from India is unlawful, but this fact does not
prevent a very large feather trade being carried on, since it is not
difficult to smuggle "ospreys" out of the country.

Doubtless the existing Notification of the Government of India,
prohibiting the export of plumage, has the effect of checking, to some
extent, the destruction of egrets, but there is no denying the fact
that many of the larger species are still shot for their plumes while
breeding.

In the case of cattle-egrets (_Bubulcus coromandus_) the custom of
shooting them when on the nest has given place to a more humane and
more sensible method of obtaining their nuchal plumes. These, as we
have seen, arise early in May, but the birds do not begin to nest
until the end of June. The cattle-egret is gregarious; it is the large
white bird that accompanies cattle in order to secure the insects put
up by the grazing quadrupeds. Taking advantage of the social habits of
these egrets the plume-hunters issue forth early in May and betake
themselves, in parties of five or six, to the villages where the birds
roost. Their apparatus consists of two nets, each some eight feet long
and three broad. These are laid flat on the ground in shallow water,
parallel to one another, about a yard apart. The inner side of each
net is securely pegged to the ground. By an ingenious arrangement of
sticks and ropes a man, taking cover at a distance of twenty or thirty
yards, by giving a sharp pull at a pliable cane, can cause the outer
parts of each net to spring up and meet to form an enclosure which is,
in shape, not unlike a sleeping-pal tent. When the nets have been set
in a pond near the trees where the cattle-egrets roost at night and
rest in the day-time, two or three decoy birds--captured egrets with
their eyes sewn up to prevent them struggling or trying to fly
away--are tethered in the space between the two nets; these last,
being laid flat under muddy water, are invisible. Sooner or later an
egret in one of the trees near by, seeing some of its kind standing
peacefully in the water, alights near them. Almost before it has
touched the ground the cane is pulled and the egret finds itself a
prisoner. One of the bird-catchers immediately runs to the net,
secures the victim, opens out its wings, and, holding each of these
betwe