CRUELTY OF RURAL AMUSEMENTS. 



on the swallow race, that " skim the dimpled pool," 

 or harmless glide along the flowery mead, when, if 

 successful, he consigns whole nests of infant broods 

 to famine and to death; is pitiable indeed ! No in- 

 jury, no meditated crime, was ever imputed to 

 these birds ; they free our dwellings from multi- 

 tudes of insects ; their unsuspicious confidence and 

 familiarity with men merit protection not punish- 

 ment from him. The sufferings of their broods, 

 when the parents are destroyed, should excite 

 humanity, and demand our forbearance. But the 

 wheatear, in an unfortunate hour, has been called 

 the English ortolan, and is pursued as a delicate 

 morsel through all its inland haunts, when hatching 

 and feeding its young, the only period in which 

 it frequents our heaths. I execrate the practice as 

 most cruel : their death evinces no skill in the gun- 

 ner; their wretched bodies, when obtained, are 

 useless, being embittered by the bruises of the shot, 

 and unskilful operations of the picker and dresser. 

 No, let the parental duties cease, and when the 

 bird retires to its maritime downs, if doomed to 

 suffer, the individual dies alone, and no starving 

 broods perish with it. I supplicate from the youth- 

 ful sportsman his consideration for these most in- 

 nocent creatures, the summer wheatear and the 

 swallow. 



The eggs produced by the wheatear are uniform 

 in colour and similar in shape; but the eggs of 



Q 



