Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-03-29

quite night this bird seldom rests, an,
in his buOyant flight is ridling the al
, OF mems worst pests.
There Is a horrible night metho,
also of taking nesting birds which i,
common in all parts of Italy. Men
> tie lanterns to long poles and shove
the lights up into the trees, or vines
or bushes, with much noise and hoot-
ing; the shifting lights 80 terriiy the
birds, wakened out OF their sleep, that
they fly madly to and fro, and iall an
easy prey to their prosecutors.
This is considered very amusing
diversion, and children are allowed as
a treat to crush the skulls of the little
birds shared in Ghe nets. Tine duke
and duchess aIc As eager for these
noble pastimes rs their plowman and
his wench. The amusement of the
uccelliera pleases high and low alike.
| The prince and cardinal find a great
glee in its stupid butchery, as do the
country lout and city cad The pa
trician woman claps her jeweled hands
and the sleek ecclesiastic purrs with
pleasure as the victims are shared,
caught, and either killed or Gagged.
Legislation as regards birds is en-
vironed with many difficulties. 1t is
hard to know how law is broken
over miles OF wild country, within park
walls along solitary shores, and on
lonely hillsides. But great good
would be effected il birds were prohib
tied as food; if all nets, traps, gins,
bird lime. and call birds were made il
legal and if punt shooting and night
netting of water birds were forbidden.
In Italy, if birds were not allowed to
be brought within the gates of town,
their slaughter and capture would be
much diminished, and il the gun tax
were raised, the crowds OF cads who
ravage the country fields would be
greatly lessened. If the uccellario and
panatoie of the richer classes were
made unlawful, the numbers thus sac
rificed would be also much diminished
As many as six or seven hundred birds
OF all kinds are frequently caught in
one morning by these means on IL sim
gle field or in a single shrubbery.
Consider the marvellous life of bird
and the manner OF its whole existence.
Men must truly be brutes not to be
moved by wonder and admiration before
creature so ingenious, so courageous
and so prosecuted. Consider the
powers of that little mind OF which
the inner light flashes from the round,
bright eye; the skill in building its
home, in finding its food, in protecting
its mate, in serving its offspring, in
preserving its own existence. sur
rounded as it is on all sides by the
most rapacious enemies. Consider its
migration. Men are proud of the
steamships and railway trains of the
overland route between Europe and
India, but what merit have they be-
side the flight OF the bird from North
ern Europe to Southern Asia? Alone.
unaided, opposed by many adverse
circumstances, and frequently blown
back by weather, it yet crosses
continents, seas, and deserts, till it
reaches its winter home by Nile, or
Ganges, or Euphrates; and yet again,
when spring is in the air, returns over
those thousands of miles to make its
nest in some Norman croft, or Rhenish
hedge, or English orchard. The
migratory flight of the bird is the
greatest miracle OF nature. 1t is sad
and amazing that it is regarded by
man with entire Indifference, and
merely utilized by him for his own
gain or diversion.
All the tendency of modern life is
set against the continuance OF what is
called "wild life"-i. e., such forms of
life as have continued to exist in a
natural state, without artificial aids or
restrictions; the only forms which are
really beautiful.
When left alone it is such lovely
little life-cradled amony the hawthorn
buds, searching for aphida among ap
pie blossoms, drinking dew from the
cup of a lily; awake when the gray
light breaks in the east, throned on
the topmost branch of tree, swinging
with it in the sunshine, flying from it
through the air; then the friendly
quarrel with q neighbor over worm
or berry; the JOY OF bearing grass
seed to his mate where she sits low
down among the docks and daisies;
the triumph of singing the praise OF
suuoiiluC VI vi HioohISut, Tic IllcIIN,
busy, useful days; the peaceful sleep,
STEPPED in the scent of the closed
flowers, with head under one wing and
the leaves forming a green roof above.
In winter, doubtless, it is hard work
for him to keep himself alive and
warm; but the bird is little philoso-
pher, and he wears waterproof coat.
Pious people rob him OF his natural
food in hedge and thicket that they may
decorate their churches with holly and
mistletoe and bay, and when the frosis
are long and the snow is deep the non
migratory bird suffers greatly; often
indeed, the cold kills him, if he escape
the gun and the trap. But in south
ern countries, like Italy, he fares we'll
if he be let alone; and in northern
countries people might easily help him
if they would but spare him some
grain, some seed, some crumbs OF
bread, some bones OF meat hung in the
branches where he can reach them
and animals cannot.
Every invention in the programme
of what Is called civilization is against
the creatures of wood and water and
air. The beaver is almost extinct, the