NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 405 



" Birds of Killingworth " were printed in letters of gold, 

 and a copy of it exhibited in a conspicuous part of Govern- 

 ment House in Bermuda; a second in the council chamber; 

 and a third copy on the walls of the House of Assembly, 

 as a rebuke on the three branches of the Legislature, for 

 their cruel abuse of power in passing the recent iniquitous 

 law for the destruction of the few harmless Crows — Corvus 

 americanus — which have been denizens of those distant sea- 

 girt isles for unknown centuries, prior to their discovery by 

 Juan Bermudez in 1515. Justly does the poet condemn 



" A slaughter to be told in groans, not words, 

 The very St. Bartholomew of birds " ; 



And exclaim, 



" Even the blackest of them all, the Crow, 

 Renders good service as your man-at-arms, 

 Crushing the beetle in its coat of mail, 

 And crying havoc on the slug and snail." 



In 1875, a number of English Sparrows were introduced 

 into Bermuda, and turned adrift in and near Hamilton. 

 These little birds thrived and multiplied, and made them- 

 selves very much at home in the gardens around. 



On January 1st, 1884, looking over the pages of a 

 Royal Bermuda Gazette, of November 18th preced- 

 ing, I was grieved to find in the proceedings of the Legis- 

 lative Council, that " An Act to encourage the destruction 

 of Sparrows " had actually been read a third time, and 

 passed on November 7th ! I cannot help looking upon 

 this measure as an unjustifiable persecution. 



" 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 

 Where wealth of mind deteriorates, ' and men decay,' 

 Where Crows and Sparrows are deemed atrocious birds, 

 Fit only to be slaughtered by imperious lords." 



In the British possessions of India, where twenty-two 

 thousand persons are annually destroyed by Tigers, 



