Evening star., 1900-06-30
EXTER THE EGRET.
A Famous Hunter Describes Success
In Getting Plumes.

A Famous Hunter Describes Success
In Getting Plumes.
| From the San Francisco Call.
The most famous hunter for eg-ets in the
world lives among the orange trees in tho
San Gabriel valley. He is David L. Ben
nett. Go anywhere among millinery feath-
| er expert buyers the world over and you
will find how well Bennett and his egrets
| from Central America and Mexico arc
| known. Mr. Bennett makes an industry Of
| egret hunting and of selling egret feathers
| and plumes. and by it he has made for
| tune in twenty-five years.
He comes up the Pacific Coast from his
| hunting eXpe dition twice a year. He mar
kets his egret products, rests at his beaiiti- .
| full Southern California ranch few weeks.
and then goes dowr the coast for another
season of hunting. Sometimes he gets. dur
| ing fve-or six months, feathers and plunes~
| that he sells for sl,G1o. and even s2.3H. He
| says that he became a professional egret
hunter by accident Having always loved
| a gun, he went hunting while he was silver
| mining along the coast of Yucatan during
the winter of 1874. One day he brought to
| camp several beautiful specimens of herons
| or bitterns. He carefully packed away
box of the finest feathers plucked from
| the birds. When he went home to New Or
! leans his sisters were delighted with their
| gift of the feathers A local milliner
| the Bennett girls new plumes. and he
wanted to buy the lot for s75 That set Mr..
| Bennett to thinking. He knew where he
| could get hundreds more lots of similar
| feathers.
| Il contracted with a wholesale milliner
| to furnish him egret plumes for n year
| said Mr.. Bennett, in relating his expert
ences recently, and then set out for Yu-
| catan. OF course, my business is that OF
a common pot-hunting shooter. l don't
| apologize for 1t, but I do put as much
| sport smanship in my work as possible
1.-The first two years I was hunting down
| in Yucatan and Honduras I cleared. over
| and above my expenses and my living. 80
| OOO, but that was when there was no one
! who competed with me in egret hunting.
| except a lot of lazy, stupid, drunken ma
| tives of Central America. and there were
| thousands of egrets more in those days than
now. On some days used to get as many
as twenty egrets hcrons, and l have
never found any occupation so profitable
as getting thirty or so esrets week at
| about 81 each for their pumes and feath-
ers.
"Where do hunt now? On the west
| coast of Mexico. near Topic and Sinaloa.
| hunted for fifteen years in every part OF
| Central America, and I had the natives
work for me at times. so We made the birds
| mighty scarce down there before we got
| through. 1 began hunting down in the
Gulf Of California, and later in the oaya
| and lagoons the Pacific ocean side OF
Mexico in 1888. and I believe there's enough
| birds in that region to keep me busy an
| long as to stay by the earet-huntna
| Business. But everywhere In the regions 1
| rapidly growing scarcity of egrets is evi-
dent. am sure that in a dozen years or
more. If the fashion in women's millinery
prevails as now there will be very few
earets left on the west coast of the whole
| western continent. 7 have talked with men
who used to hunt esrets and herons in the
| marsh lands and bays of Peru. the Tinted
| States of Colombia. and Ecuador for the
! Paris and other European markets. and
they tell me that the birds have been 80
| thoroughly wiped ont down that way that
| it is loss of Tina ar=s money to try to ges
| living by hunting .oerets and herons A
millinery feather buyer from Paris who
| came down to the City of Mexico last Jan-
| uary told me that he will never come out
| this way any more to buy feathers. for
| there were so few good ptumes to he had
| that it was a losing proposition for him.
| He said that his firm in Paris was going to
| turn its attention to seeking Its ornamental
| feather supply in Africa, but that 1t vas
| by no means certain that it could get egret
plumes in that part of the world The
| house he was with in Paris used to buy
| s2S0OO worth of egret feathers in Mexico.
Central America, and Peru every year. so
you can see how the business on this con-
tinent has diminished.
"Egret feathers are now sold entirely nv
weight. When I went into getting the
feathers as a business / sold them at SO
much plume and so much for smaller ana
d;scolored feathers The Partisan millirers.
who rule the ornamental feather market OF
| the world and make and unmake all the
fashions and create demands in our line OF
| business, began 20 buy egret and heron
| feathers by the ounce and that practice
was quickly followed by the New York and
Philadelphia ornamental feather dealers.
Under the Mckinley tariff law there was
duty of 10 per cent ad valorem on all my
eeret feathers sent to New York, but now
they are admitted free Of duty. The price
| for my feathers depends upon the condition
of my stock and the manner and place IN
which I market IT. I have to take several
things into consideration in selling sea-
sons shooting of some 5000 or $4,000 worth
of egret feathers.
only a very few f. athers are available
or 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 experienced feather-buyer
| knows the difference at glance, and many
feet away. too. 1t is useless t2 mix heron
and egret feathers together and try to palm
them off buyer that knows his busi-
| ness full-grown egret will yield about
one-fourth of an ounce of feathers, and
| e-sixth of an ounce of plumes. None Of
the other feathers are touched. and It
takes much experience for a hunter to
know just what will be marketable. All
the available egret plumes are on the birds
back, just back of the tail, but the heron
has marketable feathers on both the back
and the breast. We generally reckon that
an egret that is got without damage to the
feathers is worth about $500 and each
heron S1.S5. Although the wholesale feather
buyers wonderfully exactins and sharp
with the hunters as to the different prices
for the egret and heron feathers. there Is
almost universal deception of the consum-
ers and the general public on these points.
l have been in first-class millinery stores
in San Francisco, New York and other
cities, and have heron feathers and
plumes sold by al parently honest saleswo-
men for genuine egretS. l have been on
5th and Madison avenues in New York and
1t is seldom that I have seen tirst-class
egret plumes worn I know, too. that many
of the fashionable women whom / passed
thought that they were wearing the best
egrets."
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