The wounded flutter through brake or wood,
With anguish writhe as they seek their food;—
Or, lingering in pain from day to day,
At length they pine and die away;~~~
Or fluttering, floating on ocean wave,
They find, in some hungry fish, a grave.
These, MAN! the trophies of thy sport!*
For these thou payest wanton court!

and SHOOTING, are encouraged as SPORTS, and followed accordingly by our MAGNATES, acts of parliament, and, I fear, most other attempts to prevent cruelty to animals, will be comparatively abortive.

Relative to the destruction of animals injurious to man, CowPER has stated the case with tolerable precision :

"The sum is this: If man's convenience, health,

Or safety, interfere, his rights and claims

Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs."

When, however, noxious animals are to be destroyed, humauity will prompt us to do the revolting deed in the most expeditious and least painful way. The wickedness and cruelty of destroying any animal, how noxious soever it may be, merely for our sport or diversion, require no comment,

In Note (17), page 185, it is stated that one hundred and twentynine birds were killed, or at least obtained, by one shot; but it should also be mentioned, as an appalling fact in the history, that nearly forty birds more, either wing-broken or otherwise injured, floated away on the surface of the water. What must have been the mass of pain and suffering produced by this outrage on the unoffending Pur; a bird which, after all, though eatable, is by no means a delicacy.

* These are not, however, the only trophies obtained by SHOOTING. The accidents arising to man himself from the use

But what have WE, HOUSE-SPARROWS, done, The victims both of net and gun!

A race proscribed, for ever we

Are doomed to dire hostility ;

Our various labours set at nought;

Our heads by the churchwarden bought ;

And every wanton, booby boy
Taught us to worry and destroy.
True, we in fields of corn delight--
Corn is to us most apposite:
In this we only follow nature,
As man does, every other creature.
Our sins are trumpeted aloud,
Our virtues wrapt in darkness' shroud.
How comes it that the good we do
Is kept most carefully from view?

of the FOWLING-PIECE in this country are so many, so continual and disastrous, that it is really surprising, seeing that shooting is not only circumscribed by law, but is, besides, in numerous instances, a very unprofitable employment, how so many persons can find pleasure or amusement in it; but it seems that its comparative unproductiveness, its dangers, and, withal, its inhumanity, are not sufficient to prevent certain persons from following, what I cannot avoid considering, to say the least of it, a silly occupation. When will men act up to the dignity of their nature and their knowledge?

"I would not kill one bird in wanton sport,
I would not mingle jocund mirth with death,
For all the smoking board, the savoury feast,
Can yield most exquisite to pampered sense."

C. LLOYD. Anthology, vol. ii. page 237

We hear not of the many seeds
Which we devour of noxious weeds;-
Of worms and grubs, destructive things,
That each of us his offspring brings.*
What though we snatch a feast of corn,
Or ere its safe in yonder barn,
Yet, is there not enough beside
For MAN and his consummate pride?
Must all of us to HIM alone

Bow down as though earth were His throne,
On which no being may intrude

To mar his pleasure or his good?

Hath HE of earth the exclusive charter ;
Shall HE for sport or pleasure martyr
All others' weal?-We may admit
His manly port-his talent-wit-
Admit, nay, more, admire them too!
But we have rights, and so have you.
Shall HE, our fellow mortal here,
Presume with us to interfere-
Fix limits to our happiness-
Capriciously curse or bless

As pleaseth his high mightiness?

* BEWICK states that "a single pair of sparrows, during the time they are feeding their young, will destroy about four thousand caterpillars weekly." They feed their young, also, with many winged insects in London, it is presumed, chiefly with flies.

The utility of the Goldfinch is peculiarly striking, it feeding in the winter, when at large, principally on thistle seed; hence it is called the Thistlefinch.

Have we no sense-no feeling-WE

With ALL THE ANIMATE of EARTH, whom HE
Vainly attempts to govern?-Narrow
The thought, and futile the pretence,
To limit to himself all sense!

He

may obtain some even from a SPARROW!

I here, might, en passant, complain
For you ye WARBLERS in our train ;
For you, who morning, noon, and night,
The woods, the uplands, meads, delight.
For you, who oft in prison dwell,

Depriv'd of social converse there,
Like lonely hermit in a cell,

Perchance to please some lady fair ;-
To pick from off her lily hand
Some crumbs, or sing at her command.
But Scotia's BARD hath well in song
Proclaim'd aloud the heinous wrong.*

"Be not the muse asham'd here to bemoan
Her brothers of the grove by tyrant man
Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage
From liberty coufin'd and boundless air.
Dull are the pretty slaves, their plumage dull,
Ragged, and all its brightening lustre lost;
Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes
Which, clear and vigorous, warbles from the beech;
O then ye friends of love and love-taught song,
Spare the soft tribes; this barbarous art forbear:
If on your bosom innocence can win,

Music engage, or piety persuade."

THOMSON'S Spring.

And you yourselves to-day have shown.
That 'tis not good to be alone.

Besides,

And here even patience' self derides,
WHO is it that complains of us—

About his corn-fields makes such fuss?
The GREATEST RAVAGER on earth-
MAN; MAN, who, from the earliest birth
Of ancient time,

Hath robb'd and ransack'd

every climeThe ocean, earth, and air, for food!

In pleasure or in wanton mood

Commands the Duck, Goose, us, to bleed;

Pursues the Ostrich on the steed;
Of all our pangs takes little heed!
The most omnivorous of all,

What shall we such a being call ?—
I might still further amplify
On his august humanity:

Might tell how, five times in a year,
He strips the raiment from the goose

And then, as heartless, turns him loose;

*

* Since the above was written, I find the following information in the Morning Herald of Sept. 15, 1826. "The farmers on the moorlands in this county (Somerset) rear vast flocks of geese, chiefly for the sake of the feathers, which are mercilessly stripped from the suffering bird five times a year. By this practice one pound of feathers is obtained from each bird yearly. Yesterday week was the period of plucking for the fifth time in the neighbourhood of Westmoor near Langport; the geese were immediately afterwards turned out on the common: