Man, who toils with his hands, cannot make such lovely colors as those of the birds of the air, and of the flowers in the fields, which do not toil.
The Snowy Egret
And now, my dear children, I shall finish this chapter by telling you about a beautiful bird that once lived quite wild in great numbers in the United States. This bird has lovely soft feathers, which are pure white; so it is called the snowy egret. The feathers are as soft as silk. They are also long, with a gentle droop at the end.
Because these feathers are so lovely, rich women want to wear them in their hats; and these rich women are willing to pay a great deal of money for the egret feathers. So, for the sake of the money, hunters go wherever these lovely birds are to be found, and catch and kill them, and get the feathers. In fact, they have killed off so many of these lovely birds, to get feathers for rich women's hats, that to-day there are hardly any snowy egrets left in the United States.
Worse than that, the hunters killed the Papa and Mamma egrets just when their babies were born, because at that time the feathers of the snowy egrets were the softest and loveliest. And so, for each Papa and Mamma egret which the cruel hunters killed, they left a dozen baby birds in their nests to starve and die. Think of that!
Now, my dear children, I want the little girls among you to remember this, especially the little girls who are lucky enough to have rich Papas and Mammas. You can grow up to be beautiful, and look beautiful, without wearing these egret feathers. There are women who try to look beautiful, but who do not think of the pain they give to God's innocent creatures.
So, if ever you want to wear egret feathers, think of the dozen baby egrets who must starve and die if you are to have them.
Snowy Egrets
Photograph of a group in the American Museum of Natural History, New York