284 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



But what have we, House- Sparrows, done, 

 The victims both of net and gun ! 

 A race proscribed, for ever we 

 Are doomed to dire hostility ; — 

 Our various labours set at nought; — 

 Our heads by the churchwarden bought ; — 

 And every wanton, booby boy 

 Taught us to worry and destroy. 

 True, we in fields of corn delight — 

 Corn is to us most apposite : 

 In this we only follow nature, 

 As man does, every other creature* 

 Our sins are trumpeted aloud, 

 Our virtues wrapt in darkness' shroud. 

 How comes it that the good we do 

 Is kept most carefully from view 1 TSM 



of the Fowling-piece in this country are so many, so continual 

 and disastrous} that it is really surprising, seeing that shooting is 

 not only circumscribed by law, but is, besides, in numerous in- 

 stances, a very unprofitable employment, how so many persons 

 can find pleasure or amusement in it ; but it seems that its 

 comparative unproductiveness, its dangers, and, withal, its in- 

 humanity, are not sufficient to prevent certain persons from 

 following, what I cannot avoid considering, to say the least of 

 it, a silly occupation. When will men act up to the dignity of 

 their nature and their knowledge ? 



'* I would not kill one bird in wanton sport, 

 I would not mingle jocund mirth with death, 

 For all the smoking board, the savoury feast, 

 Can yield most exquisite to pampered sense." 



C. Lloyd. Anthologij, vol.ii. page 237". 



