DECISIVE HOURS 19 



sands of times since, and will now put on paper as one 

 of the curious things which perhaps did lead me in after 

 times to love birds, and to finally study them with pleas- 

 ure infinite. My mother had several beautiful parrots 

 and some monkeys; one of the latter was a full-grown 

 male, of a very large species. One morning, while the 

 servants were engaged in arranging the room I was in, 

 ' pretty Polly ' asking for her breakfast as usual — ' Du 

 pain au lait pour le per roquet Mignonne ' — the man of the 

 woods probably thought the bird presuming upon his rights 

 in the scale of nature. Be this as it may, he certainly 

 showed his supremacy in strength over the denizen of the 

 air, for, walking deliberately and uprightly toward the poor 

 bird, he at once killed it with unnatural composure. The 

 sensations of my infant heart at this cruel sight were agony 

 to me. I prayed the servant to beat the monkey, but he, 

 who for some reason preferred the monkey to the parrot, 

 refused. I uttered long and piercing cries, my mother 

 rushed into the room, I was tranquilized, the monkey was 

 forever afterward chained, and Mignonne buried with all 

 the pomp of a cherished lost one. 



" This made, as I have said, a very deep impression on 

 my youthful mind." 



He sometimes destroyed life for scientific purposes, but 

 always with regret. The use of the camera has lessened 

 even such an excuse for the destruction of innocent life. 

 Only a mean mind and a low nature can be cruel. 



