[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Six,—Mr. Jennings has evidently a very superficial under- standing of the controversy regarding the supply of " moulted " feathers of the Venezuelan egret. The point raised by the Hon. Secretary of the Plumage Group was whether the trade claimed the proportion of the supply of that class of feather to be 26 per cent. quoted in the official report of 1909, or my state- ment before the House of Lords in 1908 that it was even at that time 80 to 90 per cent. At that date such regulations as existed were those which landowners themselves had est up for the purpose of preventing indiscriminate slaughter during nesting season, and these regulations are confirmed in the British Minister's report of 1909. My own evidence of the collection of "picked up " feathers dates back to 1904. The Venezuelan Government subsequently assisted the landowners in their praiseworthy attempts to protect their birds by giving these Regulations State sanction in 1910. Since that date the laws have been so strengthened and extended that they now do not permit any killing of the birds in any part of Venezuela. Surely there is now no need for Mr. Jennings and his friends to worry about the proportion of moulted f eathers.—
I am, Sir, &c., C. F. DOWNHAM. 1 d 3 Cripplegate Street, E.C. 1.
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