l
value."

Mr. Arthur T. Wayne, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., relates in sworn testimony
his experience in attempting to secure egret plumes without killing the
birds:

"It is utterly impossible to get fifty egret plumes from any colony of
breeding birds without shooting the birds. Last spring, I went twice a
week to a breeding colony of American and snowy egrets, from early in
April until June 8. Despite the fact that I covered miles of territory
in a boat, I picked up but two American egret plumes (which I now have);
but not a single snowy egret plume did I see, nor did my companion, who
accompanied me on every trip.

"I saw an American egret plume on the water, and left it, purposely, to
see whether it would sink or not. Upon visiting the place a few days
afterwards, the plume was not in evidence, undoubtedly having sunk. The
plumes are chiefly shed in the air while the birds are going to or
coming from their breeding grounds. If that millinery plume law is
repealed, the fate of the American and snowy egrets is sealed, for the
few birds that remain will be shot to the very last one."

Any man who ever has been in an egret rookery (and I have) knows that
the above testimony is _true_! The French story of the beautiful and
smoothly-running egret farms in Venezuela is preposterous, save for a
mere shadow of truth. I do not say that _no_ egret plumes could be
picked up, but I do assert that the total quantity obtainable in one
year in that way would be utterly trivial.

No; the "ospreys" of the British feather market come from slaughtered
egrets and herons, _killed in the breeding season_. Let the British
public and the British Parliament make no mistake about that. If they
wish the trade to continue, let it be based on the impregnable ground
that the merchants want the money, and not on a fantastic dream that is
too silly to deceive even a child that knows birds.

The use or disuse of wild birds' plumage as millinery ornaments is
another of those wild-life subjects regarding which there is no room for
argument. To assert that the feather-dealers want the business for the
money it brings them is not argument! We have seen many a steam roller
go over Truth, and Right, and Justice, by main strength and red-hot
power; but Truth and Right refuse to stay flat down. There is on this
earth not one wild-animal species--mammal, bird or reptile--that can
long withstand exploitation for commercial purposes. Even the whales of
th