The San Francisco call., 1898-04-03

glass and scrutinizes each plume with all the nicety of a bird examining flower. A background of white is all ways used with each plume, so as to make the faintest discoloration more perceptible. That is the time that the hunter or seller has to put in his best bits of fine work, for shrewd buyer will find some defect in color, shape or filminess in the whole of a mans stock and knock the price down 5000 or more unless the seller raises a rumpus at such proceedings and acts independent.
 "A good seasons harvest for one who is in the egret feather business on the plumes and one hundred and thirty ounces of small feathers. The best sea- son have ever had was in 1882, when I had four good shooters at work for me among the lagoor5 of Nicaragua. got about $6O00 that year clear, after seven months work. l sold the whole feather crop to buyer from Brussels, Belgium, that year. and he paid me $50 an ounce for my finest plumes.
 "Only a very few feathers are avail able on the egret. On the heron there are three times as many. but heron feathers are worth less than half as much as egret feathers. The expe rienced feather buyers know the differ ence in the feathers at a glance, and many feet away, too. It is useless to mix heron and egret feathers together and try to palm them off on buyer who knows his business. A full-grown egret will yield about one-fourth of an ounce of feathers and one-Sixth of an ounce of plumes None of the other feathers are touched and it takes much experience for hunter to know just what will be marketable. All the avail able egret plumes are on the birds back
 just back of the -.il, but the heron has
 marketable feathers on both back and
 breast.
 we generally reckon that an egret
 that is got without damage to the
 feathers is worth about $3 20, and each
 heron $1 S5
 Although the wholesale feather buy
 CTS are wonderfully sharp and exact
 ing with the hunters as to the different
 prices for egret and heron feathers
 there is almost universal deception of
 the consumers and the general public
 on these points. I have been in first class millinery stores in San Francisco New York and other cities and have seen heron feathers and plumes solo by apparently honest saleswomen fol : genuine egrets. I have been on Fiftf l and Madison avenues in New York anc on the promenade streets in San Fran = cisco many a time to observe, and it i: seldom that I have seen first-clas: egret plumes worn. I know, too, tha
 many of the rich and fashionable women whom I passed thought the! were wearing the best egrets.
 e How do we hunt egrets and herons k Well, we have to live on the. outskirt t of civilization when we go after thes n birds. For days and nights at tim we make our homes in little rowboats
 built canoe shaped for fast travelling n and we live among the marshes ant = reeds of the lagoons and bays under t fierce semi-tropic sky. It is the hardes y sort of life, and no one. however robust r could keep at it for more than feN n months at a time. The miasma of tn # water and the poisonous atmosphere al o about us at night soon fills ones bloc n with rheumatism and levers. We hun
 ters take our potion of quinine an e whisky at regular intervals severs 5. times a day. We have canned food V and metal boxes for our feathers an 2 our ammunition in the boats with u' t. We use the very best shotguns and N e 5 shot. which does effective work with ~ o,,+ ,, ,,oppIinp the birds An egret hun