AUTUMN VISITORS. 149 



barn, where the swallows have free and fearless access 

 to them, he will regard them more leniently. So much 

 easier is it to awaken a sentiment in some men's minds 

 by a barrel of kraut or a boiled dinner than by exhibiting 

 the grace and beauty and music and innocence of all the 

 birds in the world. 



Birds left unmolested usually return in the spring to 

 their old haunts, and we could look upon their departure 

 for a season with less sorrow, if we knew more of them 

 would be spared to return ; but we know their journey 

 will be attended by danger from cold and lack of food ; 

 they will be assailed by beasts, and most of all by man, 

 the most insatiate of all the beasts of prey ; they will 

 be shot and trapped by scores and thousands — some for 

 the beauty of their plumage — but more as an article for 

 food. Think of twenty thousand bobolinks shot in one 

 town and exposed for sale as an article of food — these 

 birds of song, that have filled the air with their sweet 

 melody, in orchard and meadow, cheering the hearts of 

 so many people. It is well that the children in their 

 rural homes cannot witness this wholesale murder of the 

 innocent. 



Probably next to the bobolinks, the robins suffer most 

 from these rapacious ghouls. How can a man or woman 

 eat such a bird, knowing what music was hushed, what 

 affections stilled, what loss of life and keen enjoyment 

 were forever blotted out of existence, that one palate 

 might receive a moment's gratification. 



Miss Thatcher tells us of the bhiff old gentleman at a 

 public dinner table, who, on being told that " robins 



