406 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



Leopards, Wolves, and Snakes, there is some justification 

 for the slaughter of those creatures ; but Bermuda has no 

 such excuse for the exercise of cruelty. Why should a 

 hostile feeling exist against the few Crows and Sparrows 

 to be found in the islands ? 



From a Royal Bermuda Gazette of March, 1885, I take 

 the following, dated from the Colonial Secretary's office : — 



" His Excellency the Governor has received information 

 from the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for 

 the Colonies that Her Majesty will not be advised to 

 exercise her power of disallowance with respect to the 

 following Acts of the Legislature of Bermuda, passed 

 during the last sessions." 



Among thirteen Acts which follow is "No. 16 — An Act 

 to encourage the destruction of Sparrows in these 

 islands ' ! ! ! 



The above is a sad reflection upon the wisdom and 

 inhumanity of a Colonial Government. 



Let us hope that this idle and vicious tendency to 

 persecution may be baffled by the laws of nature; and 

 that, notwithstanding the cruel proscription of the few 

 American Crows and domestic Sparrows of the Bermudas, 

 they may increase and multiply in obedience to the laws 

 of creation. 



There are few places in the world, inhabited by man, 

 where less injury could be imputed to Crows or Sparrows 

 than in the Islands of Bermuda. 



Agriculture is there unknown ; a field of grain nowhere 

 to be met with ; and a small patch of Barley but rarely to 

 be seen. All the crops are grown during the winter 

 months, and consist of Potatoes, Onions, Tomatoes, and 

 Arrowroot, for exportation, none of which the Crows or 

 Sparrows care for. As grain-eating birds, they cannot be 

 charged with doing injury to the fruit crops. 



