126 HUMANE REFLECTIONS their boys to let the birds and birds-nests alone rather than furnish them with powder and shot to kill them, or encourage them to rob the birds of their eggs.' The farmer prevents persons from trespassing on his grounds to kill one of his cows or oxen and carrying them off, or robbing him of a sheep or his poultry; but there is no doubt that he is as essentially injured by the destruction of all his birds, and he ought to address the sportsmen and offer them an ox or a cow annually, as a sort of tribute or peace offering, and thus buy off the birds, and be a gainer by the bargain. The increase of insects and flies was one of the seven plagues of Egypt, and we in destroying birds contribute all in our power to bring this cankerworm plague upon our farms, gardens, and orchards. a single sparrow or swallow destroys only a thousand insects or grubs a week, yet, as that thousand of vermin if it had been suffered to live, would in a short time by their progeny and quick generation been increased probably tenfold, and some of these new plagues again tenfold, then a single swallow or sparrow is the unconscious cause of preventing the increase of some half a million of insects to prey immediately upon the labour of the husbandman, and this half million perhaps procreate millions of millions for the coming year. There is no calculating the good If OF PAUL PRESTON. 127 that almost every kind of bird performs or the evil he prevents; it was so ordered by providence, but man seeks out many means of marring God's wise provisions; and these thousand services of the poor little bird are forgotten or never noticed, whilst a single transgression, when pinched by hunger, or a few seeds of weeds or grain to mix with his flesh diet of ten thousand canker-worms, is remembered and punished with persecution, proscription, outlawry, and death. His death too, as in my own foolish practice in Norway, often happens merely for a sporting frolic. But, exercised in the manner nature herself has provided, birds are unknowingly doing their duty, and man, in making use of them as his agents, his scavengers, his tools, his avengers, his laborers whose invaluable services he is in duty bound to reward with a few seeds gleaned from fields or forests by these guards, protectors, and friends, is fulfilling not only a worthy, politic, and economical action, but he is also doing justice and loving mercy, and will be rewarded with plentiful harvests, loaded orchards, and rich gardens. I know that birds in certain situations, if not destroyed, would do much mischief; that wild animals and reptiles near the abodes of men would be dangerous if permitted to increase. In such cases their destruction is justifiable, and a thing of course; but it is quite another matter to 128 PAUL'S REFLECTIONS. go out merely for adventure and amusement, and to de stroy for the sake of destruction. "If the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great As when a giant dies," If it be true that the lowliest creatures of creation suffer pain in common with ourselves,-and that they do, is sufficiently proved by the shivering of the unfledged bird when torn from his nest, by the wild agony of the spun cockchafer, by the writhing of the divided worm, and by the quivering wing of the half-crushed moth,-then ought we to be very careful how we inflict unnecessary pain. CHAPTER V. Language of the Brute Creation. Newfoundland Puppy and French Poodle. The Cackling Geese. The Wild The yelping Dog. The Cricket. The Actor Dog. Geese at Hudson's Bay. The Swallow. The Wolves. Travelling. Taming Wild Animals. The Rein-deer. The French Poodle and the Lapland. Northern Lights. Laplander. Paul and Frank ride a sledge. Accidents. Extraordinary feat of a Rein-deer. Fop and the Wagoner. Petersburgh. Cottages. Statue of Peter the Great. Frank's Illness. Flying Squirrels. Frank and the Bible. Power of a Mother's Prayer. 片 IN giving an account of what occurred in my younger days, I cannot but be struck with the difference between the views and reflections of the same person in his youth and his years. Things which I once prized have lost much of their value; opinions which I once held are now in many instances altogether abandoned; and even the spirit-stirring scenes that excited the ardour of my youthful heart, can now be exchanged without a pang for domestic peace. A love of quietude comes creeping over the ardent spirit of Paul Preston. Different opinions are entertained by different people respecting the language of the 130 LANGUAGE OF THE brute creation. Many doubt whether they have the power of communicating one with another, or making themselves intelligible to each other; but, for myself, I entertain no doubt about the matter. It is credibly reported that a Newfoundland puppy, being much persecuted by a large French poodle, trotted off to a farm-house about a mile distant, where a Newfoundland dog was kept. This dog he prevailed on to return with him, when, both falling on the French poodle, the latter was killed. It is said, too, that a martin, whose nest had been forcibly taken possession of by a sparrow, went away and returned with more than a hundred other martins to assist her, when, finding it was impossible to dislodge the sparrow, every one brought a bit of tempered dirt in her bill, and therewith stopped up the hole of the nest, leaving the sparrow to perish in his usurped dominions. The secretary falcon, as is well known, is so called because several long feathers grow from the back of his head, making him look like a clerk or writer, with a pen behind his ear. He lives in warm countries, where snakes and reptiles abound. He manages to seize his prey by advancing the point of one of his wings in a very ingenious manner, and thus prevents the serpent from wound |