IGNORANCE OF NATUEAL HISTORY. 



CRUELTY TO PARROTS. 



Alfred Swan, manager to Mr. Cross, a dealer in birds 

 and beasts, of Earl Street, Liverpool, was summoned in 

 October 1869 by William Henry Saunders, an inspector 

 of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals, for torturing and ill-using six parrots. Inspector 

 Saunders was upon the platform of the Heme Hill Station, 

 when his attention was drawn to a small box which had 

 recently arrived by train from Liverpool. He found the 

 box to contain six live parrots. Through a crevice in the 

 box he saw that the birds were in a distressed condition 

 and trampling upon one another. He felt it was his duty 

 to get another box, and did so, and the birds were trans- 

 ferred to that and water supplied to them. He found the 

 birds were much distressed, three that had been trampled 

 upon being in a most exhausted condition. The birds, 

 after receiving the water, ceased their cries, which had 

 evidently been those of distress. Upon the box was a 

 ticket bearing the words, " Perishable, live birds.'' Both 

 Mr. Cross and defendant denied there was any cruelty, 

 and declared it was necessary to send parrots not in a 

 large box so that they could do one another injury on the 

 way. Counsel submitted several objections to the 

 summons, and urged that if any offence had been com- 

 mitted it was not in the jurisdiction of this court, but at 

 Liverpool. He also questioned whether parrots came 



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