THE PLUMAGE BILL.
[To IKE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I did not see the Times correspondence of three weeks ago (quoted by Mr. Massingham in your issue of last Saturday), in Which the existence of osprey farms in Upper Sind was dis- proved; but I visited one of these farms in the cold weather of 1912-1913. It was situated on the Yarkan Lake in the liehar Taluka of the Larkana district, and was owned by one of the Mirbahar tribe, whom I also knew as farmer of the fish in the Yarkan Lake. The birds were kept in pens as described, except that the pens were not five feet high, and I should doubt if there were as many as sixty birds in a pen. They did not breed there, and only yielded feathers once a year. The feathers were easily plucked out. The -owner said that the supply of birds was kept up by trapping in the Sukkur district, the cap- tured birds being brought from that district to his farm. The birds in the pens were fed daily on small white fish, caught for them in the neighbouring lake. They seemed in good condition, and made no more effort to escape from 'their owner when he went into the pen to catch one that I might see the feathers, than a hen would in a hen-run in England. The Mirbahar was horrified at the idea of any one killing or ill-treating the -birds to get their feathers, and said that no one would be so foolish as to damage so valuable a bird. He said that he himself took more trouble about them than he did about his own children.— I am, Sir, &o., W. N. Bitotvit, I.C.S. East India Hnited Service Club, St. James's Square, S.W.1.
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