78 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



this was cruelty in its most horrid form — the 

 offence which puts men down on a level with the 

 worst of the mythical demons, it was surely a 

 righteous deed to blot such an existence out lest 

 other young minds should be contaminated, or 

 even that it should be known that such a crime 

 was possible. 



All those birds that had finished rearing their 

 young by the sixteenth of June were fortunate, 

 for on the morning of that day a great and con- 

 tinuous shouting, with gun-firing, banging on old 

 brass and iron utensils, with various other loud, 

 unusual noises, were heard at one extremity of 

 the village, and continued with occasional quiet 

 intervals until evening. This tempest of rude 

 sounds spread from day to day, until the entire 

 area of the village and the surrounding orchards 

 was involved, and the poor birds that were tied 

 to the spots where their treasures were, must 

 have existed in a state of constant trepidation. 

 For now the cherries were fast ripening, and the 

 fruit-eating birds, especially the thrushes and 



