36 On the wanton Destruction of Swallows. 
indeed! No injury, no meditated crime, was ever im- 
uted to these birds; they free our dwellings from multitudes 
of insects; their unsuspicious confidence and familiarity with 
men merit protection, not punishment, from him. ‘The suffer- 
ings of their broods, when the parents are destroyed, should 
excite humanity, and demand forbearance. I supplicate from 
the youthful sportsman his consideration for these most inno- 
cent creatures.” 
I have frequently heard the remark made of late years, 
<‘ How few swallows we have this season!” May not the de- 
ficiency be owing in some measure to the detestable practice 
here alluded to: ? The followers of this unmanly sport will, 
perhaps, take up their defence, and say that they pursue it 
with a view to practise and improve their skill as marksmen: 
but I have known those who, after slaughtering the inoffen- 
co) 
sive swallows and swifts in great pamper s, could yet give but 
a poor account of the partridges on the Ist of September ; : 
and the reason is, that a far greater degree of coolness and 
self-possession, prime requisites in the formation of what is 
called a good shot, is exercised in the one case, than in the 
other. ‘The young sportsman levels his tube with deliberate 
composure at the passing swallow or the swift, while he is apt 
to be hurried and unnerved by the rush and bustle of the ris- 
ing covey. ‘The shooting of swallows, therefore, for practice, 
does not advance the sportsman’s skill so much as at first 
sight might be supposed: but, if it did, the positive good 
these creatures do, the beneficial services they perform for us 
by clearing the air of innumerable insects, ought to render 
them sacred, and secure them from our molestation. With- 
out their friendly aid, the atmosphere we live in would scarcely 
be habitable by man. ‘They feed entirely on insects, which, 
if not kept under by ¢hezy means, would swarm and torment 
us like another Egyptian plague. ‘The immense quantity of 
flies destroyed in a short space of time by one individual bird, 
is scarcely to be credited by those who have not had agi 
experience of the fact. I was once present when a swift was 
shot,—I may as well confess the truth,—I was myself (then a 
thoughtless youth) the perpetrator of the deed: I acknow- 
ledge the fault in contrition, and will never be guilty of the 
like again. It was in the breeding season, when the young 
were ‘hatched ; at which time the parent birds, it is well 
known, are in the habit of making little excursions into the 
country to a considerable distance from their breeding places, 
for the purpose of collecting flies, which they bring ‘home to 
their infant progeny. On picking up my hapless and ill- 
gotten prey, I observed a number of flies, some mutilated, 
