70 
NATURE NOTES. 
observer, or else that one’s soul can be satisfied only by the 
brutal delight of killing something. 
I was once standing at a railway station in Canada, when the 
winter was just relaxing its icy grasp. INIasses of snow were 
still banked in the fence corners, but here and there the grass 
was to be seen, the sun was shining, and every one stood out of 
doors basking in its warm beams, and apparently reflecting joy- 
fully that the long siege of cold would soon be over, and leaves 
and flowers would enrich the landscape with colour and fra- 
grance. Yet what a shallow and ineffective veneer upon the char- 
acter this gentler mood proved to be ! At that moment a bird 
came flying over the desolate fields, carolling its sweet greeting, 
and perched upon the telegraph wire. “ Oh, there’s a blue- 
bird ! ” exclaimed a half-grown youth to his companion ; “ let’s 
kill it ! ” He stooped for a stone, and when I shouted, “ Drop 
that ! ” all the people stared in amazement. 
What sort of a disposition must those boys have had, who 
were eager to kill the first bluebird of spring in a winter-beset 
region ? And what shall be said of the grown and presumably 
sensible people who saw no reason, or were too weak-kneed, to 
protest ? 
The blunting of the sensibilities in a person who either does 
or acquiesces in an inhuman act, is one of the worst consequences 
of the action. In the higher and farther-reaching sense, cruelty 
injures him who inflicts it more than the creature on which it is 
inflicted. One bluebird more or less in Canada may be of small 
moment ; but no community can afford to nourish or tolerate 
such a sentiment as the stoning of that little harbinger of spring 
implied. 
One of the most satisfactory directions in which amateur 
photography has turned has been toward the “ taking ” of living 
animals in their native haunts. Here is a substitute for the gun. 
It has all the excitement of the chase, except the sight of the 
death-pang, and it brings back a durable memento of achieve- 
ment — a trophy worth having. Like the hunter, the photo- 
grapher of living animals must know their habits, find their 
haunts, outwit their vigilance, and lull their suspicions. iModern 
long-range firearms, with improved powder, make it a com- 
paratively easy matter to get within shooting distance of almost 
any animal ; but the sportsman who seeks to take the picture 
instead of the life of a wild creature must stalk it far more care- 
fully, get much nearer to it, and obtain a clearer view of it. 
Those who have tried it affirm that the uncertainty, cleverness, 
and excitement belonging to successful photography of this kind 
are far more than are required in shooting the same game, and 
far more fun. The trophies, too, are much more interesting. A 
stuffed hide, no matter how well done, requires a tremendous 
strain of the imagination that is asked to make it real ; and a 
skin stretched as a rug upon the floor, or a pair of antlers hung 
against the wall, are useless to bring back the scene of the chase 
