produced by the National
Association of Audubon Societies.

"My attention has been called to the fact that certain commercial
interests in this city are circulating stories in the 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 _garceros_, or breeding-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 conversant with
the methods employed in gathering egret and snowy heron plumes in
Venezuela, and I wish to give the following statement regarding the
practices employed in procuring these feathers:

"The birds gather in large colonies to rear their young. They have the
plumes only during the mating and nesting season. After the period when
they are employed in caring for their young, it is found that the plumes
are virtually of no commercial value, because of the worn and frayed
condition to which they have been reduced. It is the custom in Venezuela
to shoot the birds while the young are in the nests. A few feathers of
the large white heron (American egret), known as the _Garza blanca_, can
be picked up of a morning about their breeding places, but these are of
small value and are known as "dead feathers." They are worth locally not
over three dollars an ounce; while the feathers taken from the bird,
known as "live feathers," are worth fifteen dollars an ounce.

"My work led me into every part of Venezuela and Colombia where these
birds are to be found, and I have never yet found or heard of any
_garceros_ that were guarded for the purpose of simply gathering the
feathers from the ground. No such condition exists in Venezuela. The
story is absolutely without foundation, in my opinion, and has simply
been put forward for commercial purposes.

"The natives of the country, who do virtually all of the hunting for
feathers, are not provident in their nature, and their practices are of
a most cruel and brutal nature. I have seen them frequently pull the
plumes from wounded birds, leaving the crippled birds to die of
starvation, unable to respond to the cries of their young in the nests
above, which were calling for food. _I have known these people to tie
and prop up wounded egrets on the marsh where they would attract the
attention of other