406 DESTRUCTION OF ANIMALS. 
protection for the counter-balance of good which 
they ordinarily render us, such as the Titmice, 
Hawks, Sparrows, Thrushes, Blackbirds, &c. using 
however some necessary precautions against their 
plunder at the stated seasons. Further also, there are 
several kinds of predatory birds whose injuries are 
so trivial as to make it matter of astonishment 
how it should first have been deemed worth while 
systematically to pursue and destroy them, especi- 
ally as their lives and persons are so interesting 
and elegant, witness the Jay, Magpie, Raven, and 
Brown Owl, and among quadrupeds the Badger. 
The lower class of persons who by want of edu- 
cation have not been fortified against ignorance 
and error, may to some extent be excusable for 
such acts; fishermen for instance are from their 
boyhood taught to consider Starfish as great de- 
stroyers of Oysters, and as therefore fit only to be 
condemned to extermination, but when persons of 
liberal education treat such matters with indifference, 
and inconsiderately kill every animal against which 
some capricious verdict has been issued by the 
multitude, they certainly break the laws of the 
Creator by frustrating His designs, and usurping a 
power they were not destined to possess. 
Of late years, branch Societies for the “ Prevention 
of cruelty to Animals” have been instituted in most 
neighbourhoods, and whilst the philanthropy of 
its chief members is exercised and developed in the 
trial of various expedients to lessen the sufferings 
of several kinds of domesticated creatures, and in 
the due punishment of offenders against present 
laws, it is matter of astonishment that no one has 
yet thought of extending the original intentions of 
the Parent Institution beyond the sphere of domes- 
ticated animals to those in a wild state, for it is 
undeniable, that great enormities are day by day 
committed on the large scale against these unpro- 
