284 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



But what have we, House- Sparrows, done, 

 The victims both of net and gun ! 

 A race proscribed, for ever we 

 Are doomed to dire hostility ;^ 

 Our various labours set at nought; — 

 Our heads by the churchwarden bought ;-— 

 And every wanton, booby boy 

 Taught us to worry and destroy. 

 True, we in fields of corn delight — 

 Corn is to us most apposite : 

 In this we only follow nature, 

 As man does, every other Creature, 

 Our sins are trumpeted aloud. 

 Our virtues wrapt in darkness* shroud 

 How comes it that the good we do 

 Is kept most carefully from view 1 ._ '^"^ 



of the Fowling-piece in this country are so many, so continual 

 and disastrous, that it is really surprising, seeing that shooting is 

 not only circumscribed by law, but is, besides, in numerous in- 

 stances, a very unprofitable employment, how so many persons 

 can find pleasure or amusement in it ; but it seems that its 

 comparative unproductiveness, its dangers, and, withal, its in- 

 humanity, are not sufficient to prevent certain persons from 

 following, what I cannot avoid considering, to say the least of 

 it, a silly occupation. When will men act up to the dignity of 

 their nature and their knowledge ? 



** I would not kill one bird in wanton sport, 

 I would not mingle jocund mirtli with death, 

 For all tiie smoking board, the savoury feast. 

 Can yield most exquisite to pampered sense." 



C. Lloyd. Anthology , vol.ii. page 237. 



