316 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



exterminated by the plume-hunters, flourishes 

 by the thousand; the greater egret has been 

 bothered so by the smaller one that it has retired 

 before it; its heronries are now to be found 

 mainly in other parts of the protected region. 

 Many other kinds of heron, and many water- 

 fowl, literally throng the place. Ducks winter 

 by the thousand, and, most unexpectedly, some 

 even of the northern kinds, like the gadwall, 

 now stay to breed. Most of these birds are so 

 tame that there is little difficulty in taking 

 photographs of them. 



The Audubon societies, and all similar or- 

 ganizations, are doing a great work for the 

 future of our country. Birds should be saved 

 because of utilitarian reasons; and, moreover, 

 they should be saved because of reasons uncon- 

 nected with any return in dollars and cents. 

 A grove of giant redwoods or sequoias should 

 be kept just as we keep a great and beautiful 

 cathedral. The extermination of the passenger- 

 pigeon meant that mankind was just so much 

 poorer; exactly as in the case of the destruction 

 of the cathedral at Rheims. And to lose the 

 chance to see frigate-birds soaring in circles 

 above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging 

 their way homeward across the crimson after- 

 glow of the sunset, or a myriad terns flashing 



