PLEASURES OF ORNITHOLOGY. 17 



What time Columbidsi^) buoyant o'er the fields, 

 Or urged by speed, as messengers, shall fly. 



O YE who, in the smoky city, toil, 

 Denied the mountain's lofty height to tread, 

 Denied the breezes of the ocean shore, 

 Yet wisely seek occasional relief, 

 Or kind retirement from the eternal din — ' ' 



Collision of the crowd ; who to some dell 

 Where runs the rivulet, where warble birds. 

 Or, o*er the breezy hills of Hampstead hie. 

 To Sydenham's cool shades, or Wood of Penge, 

 The warblers' free domain ; how blest the change ! 

 How renovating ! But, neglecting these, 

 The simplest, purest pleasures which abound 

 Amid fair Nature's fields, if YE adopt 

 Sport for your pleasure, — Sport with sentient life — 

 Sport with " the quivering fibre"— JSirc? or Beast — 

 Unhallowed ever will that pleasure be. 

 And calm reflection wound you with her sting.(*) 



(') Columbids, birds of the Pigeon tribe. 



(^) The sport of shooting at Pigeons, it is to be regretted, 

 a very favourite one in and around the metropolis, and generally, 

 the sport of shooting at Birds have been treated so much at 

 large in my Ornitkologia that there does not appear any ne- 

 cessity for saying more concerning them here. 



