478 
BIRD-LIFE. 
The sportsman makes good use of the enmity which 
exists between Falcons and Eagle Owls, and thus 
becomes the protector of the oppressed: this is nobly 
done and well managed, and on this account I am proud 
of our German sportsmen and their prowess. 
Unfortunately it is not in other countries as with us ; 
there exist, alas, other nations in Europe where what 
they call sport is nothing else than murder: the two 
worst of these are probably Italy and Spain,—there sport 
is not understood in its true and nobler sense. In those 
lands they do not shoot for the sake of obtaining food, 
but from love of killing: they will rob a lovely bird of 
life for the sake of less than a drachm of flesh ! This is 
no sport,—it is cowardly assassination, murder without 
an object, because it is utterly useless; and the worst of 
all is that this wretched persecution has no fixed time or 
season, neither beginning nor end, but is carried on the 
whole year round; there is no limit to the destruction ; 
nothing is spared; mercy is lost sight of: in short, the 
character of these nations is seen reflected in their 
childish sport. 
At a future time I shall refer to the Italian, and his 
bird-catching. The so-called chase in Spain is carried on 
by means of the gun, and I will treat of it at once. The 
chase is free in Spain, but the hunter is not so ! He still 
remains the slave of ignorance and barbarism; this is 
probably the reason why the Spaniard is cruel towards 
both man and beast. What can one expect of a people 
where the youth of the country are used to exhibitions of 
the most unparalleled brutality against the animal king¬ 
dom ; where they are not only allowed, but are publicly con¬ 
ducted by their elders to see “ amusements which maybe 
witnessed even now-a-days ,—amusements where a noble 
