E.A.  McIlhenny.

I am more than willing to set the above against the fairy tale of Mr. Laglaize.

Here is the testimony of A.H.  Meyer, an ex-plume-hunter, who for nine years worked in Venezuela.  His sworn testimony was laid before the Legislature of the State of New York, in 1911, when the New York Milliners’ Association was frantically endeavoring to secure the repeal of the splendid Dutcher law.  This witness was 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 birds flying by.  These decoys they keep in this position until they die of their wounds, or from the attacks of insects.  I have seen the terrible red ants of that country actually eating out the eyes of these wounded, helpless birds that were tied up by the plume-hunters. I could write you many pages of the horrors practiced in gathering aigrette feathers in Venezuela by the natives for the millinery trade of Paris and New York.