EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 165 



islands, and still resort annually to its shores, 

 persistently endeavouring to re-establish their 

 colonies. A less amount of labour and expense 

 would serve to introduce a few foreign species 

 each year, and the reward would be greater, and 

 would not make us ashamed. We have gener- 

 ously given our own wild animals to other coun- 

 tries; and from time to time we receive cheering 

 reports of an abundant increase in at least two 

 of our exportations — to wit, the rabbit and the 

 sparrow. We are surely entitled to some return. 

 Dead animals, however rich their pelt or bright 

 their plumage may be, are not a fair equivalent. 

 Dead things are too much with us. London has 

 become a mart for this kind of merchandise for 

 the whole of Europe, and the traffic is not with- 

 out a reflex effect on us; for life in the inferior 

 animals has come or is coming to be merely a 

 thing to be lightly taken by human hands, in 

 order that its dropped garment may be sold for 

 filthy lucre. There are warehouses in this city 

 where it is possible for a person to walk ankle- 

 deep — literally to wade — in bright-plumaged bird- 

 skins, and see them piled shoulder-high on either 

 side of him — a sight to make the angels weep! 



