was 230 ounces.

Now with these enormous prices prevailing, is it any wonder that the
egrets and herons are being relentlessly pursued to the uttermost ends
of the earth? I think that any man who really knows the habits of egrets
and herons, and the total impossibility of any quantity of their shed
feathers being picked up in a marketable state, must know in his heart
that if the London and continental feather markets keep open a few years
longer, _every species_ that furnishes "short selected" plumes will be
utterly exterminated from off the face of the earth.

Let the English people make no mistake about this, nor be fooled by any
fairy tales of the feather trade about Venezuelan "garceros," and vast
quantities of valuable plumes picked off the bushes and out of the mud.
Those carefully concocted egret-farm stories make lovely reading, but
the reader who examines the evidence will soon decide the extent of
their truthfulness. I think that they contain not even ten per cent of
truth; and I shall not rest until the stories of Leon Laglaize and
Mayeul Grisol have been put to the test in the regions where they
originated.

A _few_ plumes may be picked out of the jungle, yes; but as for any
_commercial quantity_, it is at present beyond belief. Besides, we have
direct, eye-witness testimony to the contrary.

It must not be inferred that the friends of birds in England have been
idle or silent in the presence of the London feather trade. On the
contrary, the Royal Society for the Protection of Wild Birds and Mr.
James Buckland have so strongly attacked the feather industry that the
London Chamber of Commerce has felt called upon to come to its rescue.
Mr. Buckland, on his own individual account, has done yeoman service to
the cause, and his devotion to the birds, and his tireless energy, are
both almost beyond the reach of praise in words. At the last moment
before going to press I learn that the birds'-plumage bill has achieved
the triumph of a "first reading" in Parliament, which looks as if
success is at last in sight. The powerful pamphlet that he has written,
published and circulated at his own expense, entitled "Pros and Cons of
the Plumage Bill," is a splendid effort. What a pity it is that more
individuals are not similarly inspired to make independent effort in the
protection cause! But, strange to say, few indeed are the men who have
either the nerve or the ability to "go it alone."

On the introduction in P