214 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
those beautiful white feathers would not be worth 
anything. 
But, because they are worth a good deal, men who 
would kill every bird in the world for money go out 
with guns, and shoot these poor White Egrets whenever 
and wherever they see them. And, because of this, they 
are only to be found, now, in swamps and places where 
you, and most other sensible people, do not like to 
go; so that, now, the only people who ever see these 
beautiful birds are just the servants of the demon, 
who murder them as soon as they see them. You 
and I, and others like us, who would like to look at 
them, and admire them, and watch their ways, and 
learn all about them, cannot do so, cannot see 
them at all, cannot even imagine them, unless in 
swamps, and being shot. Yet once they were 
quite common, so that everybody might look at 
them. Now they are getting rarer and rarer, so that 
very soon, if we do not do something about it quickly, 
there will be no more of them left in the world. How 
dreadful that is to think of! If you were to see a 
very beautiful picture, or statue, and then, afterwards, 
you were to hear that it had been destroyed, you 
would feel sorry, would you not? And not only 
you, but all the world would. I feel perfectly sure 
that if Sir Edwin Landseer, who (as your mother 
will tell you) was a great animal artist, had painted a 
