e 
À ey very desirable, that the e 
Birds of Massachusetts. 265 
pend the operation of a law of nature. ‘The statutes 
on that subject are generally inefficient ; no one 
cares to execute them ; the idlers in a community 
are a privileged order, who pay little reverence to 
the law, and the industrious, beside having other 
employment than to note down their neighbors' 
transgressions, cannot be persuaded that there is 
any crime in shooting a wild bird, still less that the 
act is harmless at one season of the year, and injuri- 
ous at another. Nor is it by any means certain 
that it would be des rable, even if it were possible, : 
to prevent this extermination. It is better for the 
civilized community that the process should go on. 
"The epicure may lose an indulgence, and his case. 
will doubtless excite all the commiseration which — - 
it deserves ; but it will be public gain, without ques- 
tion, to basa the field and forest offer no bounty to 
idleness, tempting it away from the serious cares b. 
of life, to engage in pleasures, which no one is the — * 
ta in character, in habits, e in hese 6 for gp" » 
j me stication, which has been NES 4 once or 
‘twice in the preceding remarks, should be tried on 
a large scale; and it might be well if some induce- 
ment shohid be offered to tempt some competent 
persons to engage in such an undertaking. d can- 
not be despatched in a single season; it rould r- — E 
quise time to determine on what ad am under. — — 
cely t drive 
st; and much more time would Š necessary te 
VOL. Ill.—NO. 1.—II. 34 a 
* 
