JUNE JOYS 135 



spearing, poisoning, and trapping consequent on 

 human interest and affection, it seems that the 

 time has arrived for us to try to do something 

 to balance this long account. For now we begin 

 to dare to think that many of these lower animals 

 that we have hunted and imprisoned without hope 

 of release more kind than death, are sentient and 

 tender beings, not thinking nor acting in just the 

 same way that we do, but still intelligent and 

 passionate, with little hopes and fears, loves and 

 hates, of their own. The thought of it all suggests 

 how immense is the crime of man in the face of 

 Nature. 



June is the month in which we most often rob 

 the birds of their young. The schoolboy finds a 

 nest, of blackbird, thrush, or finch, or it maybe 

 that of hawk or owl, and triumphantly carries off 

 one or more of the young to his home, where they 

 are offered strange and injurious foods. The pater 

 suggests one substance, the mater another, and the 

 filius a third ; and the wonder is that the fledgelings 

 outlive that day. At dawn the urchin rises to feed 

 them ; but he is away all day at school, and on 

 his return in the afternoon the little birds seem not 



