BIRD-CATCHING. 
493 
Every other kind of bird-catching I most unhesitatingly 
condemn; and for this very reason I consider the “ Tit¬ 
mouse-hut,” or Titmouse trapping, as altogether unworthy 
of the true sportsman, and rather as the slaughter-house, 
where cruel, barbarous, and senseless boys hold their 
orgies. The Titmice are the most useful of our forest 
birds , and are so small that the numbers necessary 
to make a dish must of necessity cause much useless 
destruction; thus every sensible person ought to aid in 
protecting them to the best of his power. The individual 
who takes pleasure in this wholesale destruction sins, 
not only against the defenceless birds, but against his 
fellow-man, for, in the pursuit of his amusement, he 
injures the forest, the common property of the people; he 
destroys those who labour diligently for our benefit, and 
whose services he cannot replace. To understand the 
value of my last words one must be aware of the amount 
of good effected by one solitary Titmouse, and from that 
calculate what their united services are worth, in order to 
comprehend the wanton mischief which is perpetrated at 
the “ Titmouse hut.”* He who destroys one Titmouse 
rears hundreds of thousands of insects, which effect 
immense damage to the wood; he who kills one of these 
little birds places himself on a perfect equality with the 
uneducated, ignorant Italian. 
Heaven forbid that the legitimate bird-catcher should 
take the above as a pattern*. He spares no living animal, 
not even the invaluable Swallow, which, by the way, is not 
at all times held sacred by the Spaniard, who hangs out 
lines armed with tiny hooks baited with feathers or live 
insects; the pretty creatures snap at them, and are thus 
* Meisenhiitte (German): a regular station for trapping Titmice in the woods. 
— W. J. 
