with them, and talked to them. I have heard their tales, and even full
accounts of the 'shooting-up' of an egret rookery. Never has a man in
Florida suggested to me that plumes could be obtained without killing
the birds. I have known the wardens, and have visited rookeries after
they had been 'shot-up,' and the evidence all pointed to the everlasting
use of the gun. _It is certainly not true that the plumes can be
obtained without killing the birds bearing them_.

"Nineteen years ago, I visited the Cuthbert Rookery with one of the men
who discovered the birds nesting in that lake. He and his partner had
sold the plumes gathered there for more than a thousand dollars. He
showed me how they hid in the bushes and shot the birds. He even gave me
a chance to watch him kill two or three birds.

"I know personally the man chiefly responsible for the slaughter of the
birds at Alligator Bay. _He laughed at the idea of getting plumes
without killing the birds!_ I well know the man who shot the birds up
Rogers River, and even saw some of the empty shells left on the ground
by him.

[Illustration: YOUNG EGRETS, UNABLE TO FLY, STARVING
The Parent Birds had Been Killed by Plume Hunters]

[Illustration: SNOWY EGRET, DEAD ON HER NEST
Wounded in the Feeding-Grounds, and Came Home to Die. Photographed in a
Florida Rookery Protected by the National Association of Audubon
Societies]

I have camped with Seminoles, whites, blacks, outlaws, and those within
the pale, connected with plume-hunting, and all tell the same story:
_The birds are shot to get the plumes._ The evidence of my own eyes, and
the action of the birds themselves, convinces me that there is not a
shadow of doubt concerning this point."

This sworn testimony from Mr. T.J. Ashe, of Key West, Florida, is very
direct and to the point:

"I have seen many moulted and dropped feathers from wild plumed birds. I
have never seen a moulted or dropped feather that was fit for anything.
It is the exception when a plumed bird drops feathers of any value while
in flight. Whatever feathers are so dropped are those that are frayed,
worn out, and forced out by the process of moulting. The moulting season
is not during the hatching season, but is after the hatching season. The
shedding, or moulting, takes place once a year; and during this moulting
season the feathers, after having the hard usage of the year from wind,
rain and other causes, when dropped are of absolutely no commercia