DESTRUCTION OF HARMLESS ANIMALS. 145 



in country situations, very rarely frequent the gar- 

 den ; because, grain being their chief food, they 

 search for it round the farmyard, the rick, and the 

 stable : they resort to such situations accordingly, 

 The Robins, on the other hand, are the great de- 

 vourers of all the small fruits : they come from the 

 nest just before the currants and gooseberries are 

 ripe ; and they immediately spread themselves over 

 the adjacent gardens, which they do not quit so 

 long as there is any thing to pillage. It may ap- 

 pear strange, as it certainly is, that no writer on 

 our native birds should have been aware of these 

 facts ; but it is only a proof how little those persons,— 

 who are, nevertheless, interested in knowing such 

 things, — attend to the habits and economy of beings 

 continually before their eyes. In like manner, we 

 protect blackbirds for their song, that they may rob 

 us of our wall and standard fruits with impunity. 



(88.) It behoves every one to show humanity to 

 animals, although we are authorised and justified in 

 destroying such as are found, by experience, to injure 

 our property. Under this latter head, however, we 

 are committing so many mistakes, that, ere long, 

 some of the most elegant and interesting of our 

 native animals will probably be extirpated. Country 

 gentlemen give orders to their gamekeepers to de- 

 stroy all " vermin" on their preserves; and these 

 menials, equally ignorant with their masters of what 

 "vermin" are really injurious, commence an indiscri- 

 minate attack upon all animals. The jay, the wood- 

 pecker, and the squirrel, — three of the most elegant 

 and innocent inhabitants of our woods, — are doomed 

 to the same destruction as the stoat, the polecat, and 



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