[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your issue of April 24th Mr. Massingliam denies the existence of egret farms in Sind. I can assure you that they do exist. Mr. Massingliam says that the farm birds are really blinded decoy birds. As his authority for this he quotes a Major Lindsay Smith, of whom I never heard before, although I have lived in Sind twenty years. But plume egrets cannot be caught by decoys in Sind, because there are none to catch. The wild Sind egret is of the plumeless kind, and the ancestors of the farm egrets were imported from another part of India. The Sindhi fennaen are not humane but they are businesslike. It does not pay to treat their egrets ill, so they treat them well. It is possible that the cruel methods of which we hear are really followed in other countries. I suppose it is possible to enter the egg trade by robbing jungle fowls' nests in the forests. But it is easier and more profitable to keep a poultry farm, and I should think it is the same in the feather trade. However, the egret farmers have other trades, and it will not be much hard- ship even to them if the sale of the feathers is stepped. I am not an opponent of the Bill. On the contrary, my reason for stating the facts is that I think the cause of reform endan- gered by the exaggeration of its advocates.7-I am, Sir, &c.,
SANDHI.
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