Page:The birds of Tierra del Fuego - Richard Crawshay.djvu/92

26 time, and there is good reason to believe that the juniors are hatched out by the warmth of their elder brethren."

In the advance of civilization, an appeal of another nature than against superstition and prejudice has become necessary on behalf of the Barn Owl, and this is dealt with by Lilford, who protests against the barbarity of massacring Owls for sale and manufacture into fire-screens and plumes for ladies' hats.

Let me second this by quoting the words of one who writes from a broader standpoint than that of the lover of birds alone, words which from their depth of feeling must appeal to all thinking people, the words of Lecky in his "Map of Life":—"It is melancholy to observe," says he, " how often sensitive women who object to field sports and who denounce all experiments on living animals will be found supporting with perfect callousness fashions that are leading to the wholesale destruction of some of the most beautiful species of birds, and are in some cases dependent upon acts of very aggravated cruelty."

The Kuran realizes the following ideal:—"There is no beast on earth, nor bird which flieth with its wings, but the same is a people like unto you—unto the Lord shall they return."

Anyone to whom this in the least appeals, is not likely to be guilty of wantonly sacrificing the life of the meanest fellow creature, still less of so interesting and useful a companion to man as this Owl.