174 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



the little blue heron, the Louisiana heron, the 

 reddish egret, the great white egret, and the 

 snowy egret. Conceive, if possible, this vast 

 assembly of harmless, gentle, conspicuous, and 

 beautiful birds during the breeding season. Re- 

 call the description I have given of the breeding 

 site of similar birds on the shore of Panasofkee 

 Lake. Magnify such a description tenfold, and 

 the result is much less than the reality. It was a 

 colony of birds that the eye could not take in at 

 a single sweep. In the landscape the feathered 

 population was the predominant feature. All 

 this could be seen but little more than twenty 

 years ago ; all of it was destroyed during the next 

 six or seven years. 



We guard with care and highly prize our great 

 libraries and art collections. We go to the extent 

 of keeping the rare books, pictures, and objects 

 of art away from the touch of the general pub- 

 lic. Here, out of doors, was one of the treas- 

 ures of nature ; a thing of beauty and priceless 

 value ; a never ceasing panorama of action sug- 

 gesting emotions of a profound nature — all this 

 was wantonly destroyed. I trust that the time 

 will come when civilization will appreciate as 

 fully the treasures of nature as they do the 

 treasures of art. There is only one Venus 

 de Milo ; there was but a single great bird 

 island, at the mouth of Tampa Bay ; it had no 



