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| Some egret-farmers stitched up the birds' eyes to prevent them from escaping |
The past couple of decades has seen an explosion in North East Lincolnshire's population of little egrets. These elegant wading birds are now found across a wide variety of habitats in dykes, on farm fields and sometimes on golf courses. Intriguingly, time was when they were farmed - not in the UK but in India - for their beautiful snowy-white feathers. These were greatly in demand in London, Paris and other European cities and towns for the purpose of adorning the hats of 'fashionable' ladies. Below is a report by diplomat George Birch (born June 30, 1880), written in 1914, that was published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
FISHERFOLK of the inland waters of the province of Sind are building up a lucrative trade in feathers plucked from the plumage of little egrets.
This operation is conducted without injuring the birds - in the same way as feathers are plucked from the ostrich.
During the course of residence on duty at the village of Ber in the Kamber Taluka of the Larkana District, I spent considerable time in investigating personally the modus operandi of the breeders.
I have thought it worthwhile to record the results of these investigations as the egret, or white heron, is regarded popularly as requiring most protection by the state against the depredations of man in pursuit of the beautiful plumes, now so valuable a commodity in the world of fashion.
The village of Ber is situated on the edge of the Change Lake in the Larkana District.
At a distance of about 300 yards from the village and practically on the edge of the water, a colony of inhabitants numbering some 200 men, women and children have their abode in reed huts.
A feature which attracted my attention since my last visit to the village was the recent erection in front of each abode of quadrangular structures of reed mats - measuring 20ft x 8ft x 8ft - resembling a typical poultry run.
On obtaining entrance into one of these structures, I found it contained at least three score pairs of full grown egrets in a state of freedom,
There was a plentiful supply of perches for the birds, and the cage was tolerably clean.
The birds appeared to associate in pairs, and met the intrusion with their usual hoarse cries.
A liberal supply of food, consisting of small fresh water fish, lay about in shallow earthern platters, and the birds helped themselves at leisure.
The birds were fairly tame and allowed themselves to be seized by their owners without showing any fear.
There were about 20 such cages, each containing about fifty birds on average.
There was ample evidence to indicate that the birds breed freely in these conditions of modified captivity.
Enquiries showed that, under these conditions, birds assume their nuptial plumage four times a year - twice in summer and twice in winter.
The summer plumage is comparatively poor, nearly half that of the winter plumage.
The breeding season commences early in March and continues up to the end of September.
As soon as the breeding season begins the birds break up into couples.
Twigs are strewn about the cage, and each pair of birds build a nest.
The birds hatch their own eggs which are jealously guarded, the male bird invariably taking the place of the mother bird when she leaves the nest for food or exercise.
The young are permitted to remain with the parent birds for about a week when they are removed and reared by hand.
The pair, meanwhile, commences to breed again.
The number of times the birds breed during this period depends on the degree of vitality of each pair.
Eggs are laid never less than twice during the season and sometimes as many as four or five times; the number of eggs each time varies from three to five. It takes about 12 months for a bird to reach maturity.
The plumes are made up into small brushes and are taken to Sukkur and Karachi for sale.
Egret-farming has become a lucrative activity..
The Sukkur merchants export the feathers to Calcutta whence they are no doubt smuggled out of the country to the European markets where prices ranging as high as £ 15 per ounce of feathers are realised.
Not only has a trade in the plumes been built up, but the birds them
selves now command a high market value
The ease with which the egrets are bred and multiply, the fruitful crop of plumes yielded by the bird and the high prices which the birds command are causing the industry to spread very rapidly in the neighbourhood of the inland waters of the province of Sind.
It may be predicted that in a few years, if the demand for the plumes continues, every fishing village in the interior of the country will have its egret farm.
Of course the trade in plumes of the birds of the egret and heron species has always existed in Sind but the methods formerly followed were quite different and the trade never attained such large dimensions.
The practice followed till about three decades ago, was to snare the birds and destroy them for their plumage.
On this being stopped, by executive orders of the then Commissioner in Sind Mr. (now Sir) Evan James, the practice of snaring the birds and keeping them in captivity was resorted to.
However, this led to the infamous custom of stitching up the birds' eyes with the object of preventing them from escaping.
The latter practice is now rigorously suppressed by action under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and these orders have proved an important factor in the inception of the system of egret farming described in this note.
Arrangements are being made to obtain a pair of the birds for the
Karachi Zoo.
In this connection, a question bound to arise sooner or later is the
necessity for the modification of the drastic Notification issued by the Government of India in 1902 which "prohibits the taking by sea or by land out of British India of skins and feathers of all birds other than domestic birds, except (a) feathers of ostriches and (b) skins and feathers exported bona fide as specimens illustrative of natural history."
The result of the Notification has been to create a large industry in the smuggling out of the country - even in cases where destruction and cruelty to the birds concerned are not involved - of feathers that have a distinct commercial value.
If bird-farming on humane lines for the sake of plumage is to be encouraged in India, these orders must be modified.
Only the other day the Customs authorities at Karachi seized several boxes of peacock feathers which were being surreptitiously exported under a false declaration by a European firm.
These were confiscated and a fine imposed.
Now it is well known that the peacock moults its train.
The bird is regarded as sacred by a large majority of Indians and is seldom or never killed by them.
Those occasions on which it is shot by inexperienced European sportsmen have not infrequently led to collisions with the country people.
In many other directions the necessity for the amendment
of the orders in question could be indicated, so as to encourage instead of deterring the farming of birds whose plumage has a distinct marketable value.
George Birch (Assistant Commissioner in Sind)
Karachi
March, 1914.
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