THE RETURN OF THE NATIVES. 93 



of families, and banishing the hopes of lovers, he 

 turned on me with surprise and coolly laughed. 



The field-glass was a superior instrument to his 

 gun, I thought ; and the live bird, brought so near 

 that I could observe its actions, was better, in many- 

 instances, than the stiff, unnatural stuffed model. 



It is a sacrilege to rob the nest of warblers, fly- 

 catchers and thrushes, and to shoot them down 

 mercilessly, for the sake of the mere money that 

 such prepared specimens will bring. The different 

 aviaries, museums and rooms for scientific study 

 are the only places where samples should be on 

 exhibition. Let the art of painting them supply 

 the ornaments in our households, and the milliner's 

 ingenuity devise some other embellishment than 

 dead vireos, bluebirds and tanagers. 



