BOOK NOTICES. 



DISREPUTABLE CRUELTIES. 



The Humanitarian League, of London, is 

 an organization which I wish God-speed, 

 with all my heart. It denounces all forms 

 of cruelty toward animals, both tame and 

 wild, from the disgusting chase ( ?) of 

 tame stags by the Queen's hounds and by 

 lords, ladies and snobs, down to the 

 loathsome and brutal pastime of rabbit- 

 coursing by the unwashed rabble. The 

 latter diversion consists in allowing dogs to 

 tear live rabbits asunder in the name of 

 sport. Bad as this is, the tame stag 

 business, is infinitely worse, because the peo- 

 ple who participate in it are educated, and 

 owe it to society to stand for civilization 

 rather than for ravagery. One could enter 

 with some interest into a race after hounds 

 following the trail of an anise bag; but to 

 take a tame and sedentary deer from a 

 small pen, turn it loose and force it to run, 

 under protest and without knowing why, 

 driving it over palings and wire fences, 

 into barns, houses, and even into the wait- 

 ing room of the royal railway station— 

 faugh ! 



The joint authors ot the campaign docu- 

 ment before me do not mince matters in 

 the least, and as occasion requires they 

 strike with all sorts of weapons, from ra- 

 piers to sledge hammers. Vivisection re- 

 ceives some of the hardest blows I have 

 ever seen administered to it, and, for that 

 matter, so do many other forms of cruelty 

 to wild creatures. People in this country 

 will be startled by learning of the immense 

 numbers of wild song birds that in England 

 are kept imtiny cages. Larks, linnets, bull- 

 finches, warblers and tits sell at prices 

 varying from one to 2 shillings a pair. 

 Greenfinches are often sold at a half- 

 penny each. One dealer advertises an an- 

 nual trade of 30,000 cock larks; and in 

 England, bird catching, with nets and bird 

 lime, is pursued by thousands of persons, 

 both in a professional way and as a pas- 

 time. Fortunately for American birds, peo- 

 ple in this country, as a rule, find no pleas- 

 ure in the contemplation of insectivorous 

 birds threshing about in nasty little cages, 

 so small the birds can scarcely turn around, 

 and slowly starving for insect food which 

 can not possibly be supplied them. It 

 would be a good thing if every reader of 

 Recreation would resolve never to capture 

 an insectivorous bird, and I should be glad 

 to see their keeping absolutely prohibited, 

 even by zoological gardens if need be. 



One of the strongest papers in the book 

 before me is that by Miss Edith Carring- 

 ton, on "The Extermination of Birds." In 

 addition to the cage bird evil, already men- 



tion, she takes up the women who wear 

 bird millinery, and gives them fits. In 

 their turn, the live pigeon shooters, the egg 

 stealers, and the men who eat larks and 

 robins, at one and sixpence a dozen, come 

 in for a lambasting and a showing-up that 

 would bring the blush of shame to the 

 cheek of a self respecting dog. 



Beyond question, the Humanitarian 

 League is an organization destined to ac- 

 complish a great amount of good, much of 

 which can be brought about through the 

 circulation of its publications. In these 

 days of slaughter and cruelty in many 

 forms, it is well that good men and women 

 should organize for systematic and aggres- 

 sive work against cruelty to helples: crea- 

 tures. While I can tolerate the pursuit of 

 wild creatures on their chosen ground, and 

 the quick death of a few under condition? 

 which give the game a fair show, I have no 

 patience with any of the unsportsmanlike, 

 unmanly and unwomanly practices that ard 

 attacked in this document. 



"Cruelties of Civilization ; A Programme 

 of Humane Reform." Edited by H. S. Salt. 

 Humanitarian League Publications, No. 2< 

 Bellamy Library No. 25. For sale by 

 Brentano, New York. 



AN IMPORTANT FORESTRY BOOK. 



"North American Forests and Forestry," 

 by Ernest Bruncken. Published by G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons. 



This interesting volume, the intent oi 

 which is to show the relations of the forest 

 to the national life of the American people, 

 is an excellent, popular book. The au- 

 thor is a lawyer who has studied forestry 

 several years, and was secretary of the 

 Wisconsin State Forestry Commission, 

 Many parts of this book are well wortfl 

 quoting. Many people believe that the 

 work of the forester relates to trees wheth- 

 er along streets, in parks or in the forest. 

 The forester has to do with forests, and, 

 as Bruncken says, "The forest is not a 

 thing that was made once and remained 

 the same every after. It grows and de- 

 velops as a whole, just as each individual 

 tree grows from infancy to old age. Again, 

 this growth and constant change take 

 place according to complex and unal- 

 terable laws. Each tree does not con- 

 stitute an independent entity, but is af- 

 fected in every moment of its life by every 

 other tree and minor plant of the entire 

 forest, and in turn itself influences every 

 other tree. The forest, therefore, con- 

 stitutes an organism, having a united life 

 different from, but dependent on, the life 

 of its individual members. Within this 



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