The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1900-03-30
THE BIRDS.


Editor Chronicle:
A noted author of today, relates the
following touching story OF the cele-
brated Russian novelist, Turgenieff !:
when Turgenieff was boy of ten,
his father took him out one day bird
shooting. AS they tramped across the
brown stubble golden pheasant rose
with a low whirr from the ground at
his feet, and with the joy of sports
man, throbbing through his veins, he
raised his gun and fred wild with
excitement when the creature fell
fiuttering at his side. Life was ebblng
fast, but the instinct of the mother
was stronger than death itself, and
with a feeble fiutter of her wings the
mother bird reached the nest where
her young brood were huddled. I'M
conscious of danger Then, with
such look of pleading and reproach
that Turgenieff' heart stood still at
the ruin he had wrought-and never
to his dying day did he forget the
feeling of cruelty and guilt that came
to him in that moment; the little
brown head toppled over, and only
the dead body of the mother shielded
her nestlings. Father, father" he
cried, What have done. but not to
his fathers eye had this little tragedy
been enacted, and he said: Well done,
my son, that was well done, for your
first shot You will soon be fine
! sportsman. Never, father never
again shall destroy any living crea-
ture. If that is sport, | shall have
none of it. Life is more beautiful to
me than death, and since cannot give
life, will not take it. And the
same author goes on to say, Instead
of putting into the hands of the boy 6
gun, or any weapon that may be in
strumental in Gripping, torturing Oh
I taking the life of even a single animal
would give him the field glass and
the camera, and send him out to be 6
| friend to the animals, to observe and
study their characteristics, theil
habits, to learn from them those
wonderful lessons that can be learned,
and thus have his whole nature ex.
pand in admiration and love and care
for them, and become thereby the truly
manly and princely type of man,
rather than the careless, callous, and
brutal type" At this season of the
year especially our town is afflicted
like many another, by the boy and
his gun. He is a peril to all life
around him, and a nuisance to his
neighborhood. If his parents will not
encourage him in some gentler pas
time, let them at least teach him that
no true sportsman goes out to destroy
bird life in the breeding season, that
it is against the law to do so. and
that no gentleman breaks the law.
If he must shoot English sparrows
| (Which the law does not protect, let
the boy first prove that he knows the
difference between an English sparrow
and the tree sparrow-the latter being
very desirable little bird-and then
let him aim at English sparrows in
q locality where his neighbors cannot
be annoyed or endangered. Where
birds are hunted for food, a competent
man for this purpose, is the human
hunter, who knows when and what tC
shoot, and he is not to be discussed
with the inexperienced boy.
Statistics prove that if the birds
are not better protected than they
have been of recent years, that oul
country will become practically I'M
inhabitable, for man, because vegeta
tion will be hopelessly blighted by in
sects which the birds destroy.