Introductory 



reckoned as one of his friends. Here the robin, were it not pro- 

 tected by law, would be shot off for food purposes, and 1 think 

 this comes largely from the fact that the bird, like all the other 

 birds, is not known really intimately, and therefore not cared 

 for. Only last summer an instance attracted my attention of the 

 utter barbarism that exists among some boys in this connection. 

 I had noticed a robin's nest containing eggs, and being anxious 

 to obtain certain notes in connection with the young, I visited it 

 again three days later. What I saw made me fairly sick at heart. 

 The parent bird was hanging from a branch — dead. Some boy 

 had fastened a fish-hook baited with a worm to the branch 

 above the nest. The poor bird had swallowed the hook and 

 had hung there to die a slov/, lingering death by starvation. 

 The young had also starved to death. Such cruelty seems 

 almost incredible; yet it was done by a boy supposed to be of 

 average intelligence, who was being educated at a good school. 



Keeping pet birds is a much discussed question, but after all 

 my experience 1 have no reason to believe that they are neces- 

 sarily unhappy in captivity. Some of my birds have been out for 

 a fly many times, but they always seem glad to return, and I am 

 sure they enjoy themselves, even when in their cages. Of 

 course they receive every care and are allowed a good deal of 

 freedom ; they have no cares, no trouble to search for food or 

 shelter, and they are nearly always well, and to all appearances 

 happy. The whole question is, of course, one that each person 

 must decide for himself, but unless there is a great deal of cer- 

 tainty in one's mind it is surely better to give the birds the 

 benefit of the doubt — and their freedom. One aspect of the case 

 has been put acutely by a poet who loved birds and sympathised 

 with them very fully. He says of his mocking-bird : 



" We have sometimes discussed the question: Is it better on 

 the whole that Bob should have lived in a cage than in the wild 

 wood ? There are conflicting opinions about it: but one of us is 

 clear that it is. He argues that although there are many songs 

 which are never heard, as there are many eggs which never 

 hatch, yet the general end of a song is to be heard, as that of an 

 egg is to be hatched. He further argues that Bob's life in his 

 cage has been one long blessing to several people who stood in 

 need of him: whereas in the woods, leaving aside the probability 

 of hawks and bad boys, he would not have been likely to gain 



8 



