DECEMBER 249 



leaves the nest, at least four other nestlings have been 

 thrown out of their home and have perished miserably 

 of starvation. 



No: one searches in vain for justice and mercy 

 among the lower animals. Humanitarians would steer 

 clear of many errors and inconsistencies if they studied 

 natural history more closely. For instance, at the 

 aforesaid Westminster Congress, one lady made an 

 eloquent appeal on behalf of horses, which, so far as it 

 related to their humane treatment, and so far as it 

 consisted of condemnation of harshness or neglect, was 

 unexceptionable. But when she went on to draw a 

 picture of the happiness of wild horses in South 

 America, and of the hardness of that man's heart who 

 should throw a lasso over one of them, one could not 

 but remember with a smile that, but for man the 

 tyrant, there never would have been a horse in the 

 American continent. There is some obscurity about 

 the original home of the horse probably it was on the 

 Asian steppes ; but there is no doubt whatever that the 

 progenitors of the American mustangs were simply 

 escapes from the studs imported by the Spanish 

 conquerors. 



The same lady put in a plea for the rights of small 

 birds, and asked us if they did not deserve to be 

 respected, seeing how diligent most of them were in 

 destroying the lives of insects. Is our compassion, 

 then, to be limited to vertebrate animals ? If the 

 spotted fly-catcher is to be loved and cared for because 

 he swallows many blue-bottles, does it follow that the 

 blue-bottle has no rights ? Is not he capable of enjoy- 



