ii2 Alexander Goodman More. [i860 



reproach himself afterwards with having stilled for ever 

 a glorious creature whose life gave pleasure to many 

 more than could its death, that I am sure it is not upon a 

 true ornithologist the call of mercy needs to be impressed. 



" We who watch birds in the spirit of ornithology, love 

 them too ; and if specimens are indispensable, they are 

 taken sparingly, not from mere taste for killing. It is true 

 that the ' priest' must sometimes take the sacrificial knife, 

 but if he must nerve his arm for slaughter, surely that is 

 no reason why murder should become general. 



" It is a sad pity that so many begin the study of Birds 

 by indiscriminately shooting down everything they come 

 across. It almost seems as if such persons made ornitho- 

 logy a pretext to glut a taste for blood, of which they would 

 otherwise be ashamed. 



" It must have struck most people that of many birds we 

 have no other record than their death. How many epitaphs 

 of the poor Hoopoe are there not chronicled ? And if any 

 tender-hearted person should ask, * wherefore were they 

 slain?' a novel explanation is suggested by a remark of 

 Mr. E. C. Taylor, who, writing in the 'Ibis' of the birds 

 of Egypt, mentions that 'his party found the Hoopoe very 

 good eating.' However, we can hardly believe the taste 

 for Hoopoe-flesh is general in England ; though collectors 

 of birds are (like entomologists) often supposed to ' eat 

 what they catch/ 



"No : in England it is the love of what is falsely called 

 sport; and the unfortunate rage for British-killed speci- 

 mens of the so-called British species that does the mischief. 

 As if a Hoopoe on his travels were worth any thing more 

 than one obtained at his head-quarters. 



" In Italy it is the actual consumption of every kind of 

 bird that has led to that scarcity which is remarked by 

 every traveller. 



" Let me quote an illustration of each : 



"First, from Thompson's ' Birds of Ireland' (Preface to 

 the 3rd volume). How fared the harmless Terns at Lam- 

 bay, an island off the Dublin coast r ' An officer laid a 

 wager he would shoot 500 birds in the day, and went 

 to the island with every requisite for his murderous 



