54 NATURALISES CABINET. 



Utility Should not be destroyed. 



caught, and sold as food, in the markets of Spain, 

 France, and Italy. When this practice has been 

 very general and successful, I have little doubt 

 that it has at times contributed to the scarcity of 

 corn. In England, we are not driven to such 

 resources to furnish our tables. But what apo- 

 logy can be made for those, and many there are, 

 whose education and rank should have taught 

 them more innocent amusements, but who wan- 

 tonly murder swallows under the idle pretence of 

 improving their skill in shooting game ? Besides 

 the cruelty of starving whole nests by killing the 

 dam, they who follow this barbarous diversion 

 would do well to reflect, that by every swallow 

 they kill, they assist the effects of blasts, mildews, 

 and vermin, in causing a scarcity of bread. Every 

 lord of a manor should restrain his game-keeper 

 from this execrable practice; nor should he per- 

 mit any person to sport on his lands who does 

 not refrain from it. For my part, I am not 

 ashamed to own, that I have tempted martins to 

 build round my house, by fixing scallop shells in 

 places convenient for their ' pendent beds and 

 procreant cradles' ; and have been much pleased 

 in observing with what caution the little architect 

 raises a buttress under each shell, before he ven- 

 tures to form his nest on it." 



We are informed by M. de Buffon that a shoe- 

 maker in Brasil put a collar on a swallow, con- 

 taining an inscription to this purpose : 



" Pretty swallow, tell me, whither goest thou in winter ?" 



