72 OWLS 



it, asked him whether he could do anything further 

 for him, replied : " Could you get me my Sabbath 

 blacks to wear on the occasion ? " " Yes/' replied 

 the Counsel ; " but why on earth do you want 

 them ? " " It's just " such was the rejoinder " as 

 a mark of respect for the departed." 



Let me, before I conclude, lodge one more 

 protest and make one more appeal against the 

 pole-trap, which, though less common than it was, 

 is still to be seen, a hideous appendage, in too 

 many green rides in the game preserve, and on 

 too many picturesque knolls amidst the heather. 

 Anyone who has seen, as I have done, a bird 

 which is so interesting from every point of view, 

 which lends such a charm by its flight and note 

 to the evening hours, which is so charged with 

 natural affection for its young and its belongings, 

 hanging from a pole-trap with pleading, reproachful 

 eyes, and perishing in prolonged agony when, as so 

 often happens, the keeper has not cared to go his 

 rounds, must feel his indignation and his compassion 

 deeply stirred within him. If he does not take the 

 law into his own hands in obedience to a higher law 

 as, I confess, I have often done and, wilfully 

 guilty of a petty larceny, fling the instrument of 

 torture into a place where it will not be found again, 



