CRUELTY OF RURAL AMUSEMENTS. 



of the country, I regret to say that rural amuse- 

 ments, connected as they commonly are with the 

 creatures about us, are frequently cruel ; and that 

 we often most inconsiderately, in our sports, are 

 the cause of misery and suffering to such as nestle 

 around our dwellings, or frequent our fields, which, 

 from some particular cause or motive, become the 

 object of pursuit. I say nothing of the birds known 

 as game, as perhaps we cannot obtain them by less 

 painful means than we are accustomed to inflict, and 

 the pursuit is frequently conducive to recreation 

 and health ; but the sportsman's essaying his skill 

 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 man 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, 



