on Sparrow clubs.



277



At this time of all times, when the whole world is teeming

with horrors, which children of course are bound to hear about and

read of, surely it is spreading the fearful disease of cruelty among

children to allow them to have a hand in this wholesale murder of

birds, for that is what, without doubt, it will end in if children, with¬

out judgment, knowledge, and, I’m sorry to say, mercy, are allowed

to join in this pitiful task with people who can, if they choose, use

judgment and knowledge.


Encouraging children to kill the birds will be the sure

undoing of all the good results gained in the last few years from the

admirable lessons in natural history and kindness to animals, given in

so many country schools. The teachers in some places have an up¬

hill task, for undoubtedly there is an instinct of cruelty in a great

many children, an hereditary instinct it may be, and its development

or otherwise is almost entirely dependent on parents and others

responsible for their bringing up; but as a rule we find that part of

their responsibility deplorably neglected. “ He was too young to

know better ” is often the futile excuse of a parent for a child of five

or six, or even older, who has committed some hideous piece of

cruelty to a defenceless little bit of furred or feathered life !


Surely nothing can be written too strongly on this subject, for

we, bird and animal lovers all, know that where there is a free hand

given to the destruction of living creatures (sometimes necessary,

unfortunately, as in this case of thinning out the sparrows) the

human mind is in most cases so constructed that it loses all feeling,

discrimination, and mercy when it sees the word “ kill ” standing out

in large letters.


It would be terrible if our dear old England, with its tradi¬

tions of humanity and its bird-protecting laws, were to be now bereft

of its bird life ; the charm of the country would be gone, and what

has happened on the Continent might be our fate, namely, gardens

ruined by insect pests, and then poisoning sprays used on the plants

and vegetables, as they do on the vines in Italy and Switzerland, to

destroy the blight caused there by the hordes of destructive insects,

because the small insectivorous birds have been so wantonly and

cruelly killed without restriction. Happily the Swiss are wiser now,

as is proved by the many little next-boxes nailed up in the trees to

encourage the birds to build in the gardens and round about.



