. The bird. Birds. ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 323. Page 15 7. The useful equUihriuin of life and death.—Numerous species of birds no longer make a halt in France. One with difficulty descries them flying at inaccessible elevations, deploying their wings in haste, accelerating their passage, saying,-—-" Pass on, pass on quickly ! Let us avoid the land of death, the land of destruction !" Provence, and many other departments in the south, are barren deserts, peopled by every living tribe, and therefore vegetable nature is sadly impoverished. You do not interrupt with impunity the natural harm
. The bird. Birds. ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 323. Page 15 7. The useful equUihriuin of life and death.—Numerous species of birds no longer make a halt in France. One with difficulty descries them flying at inaccessible elevations, deploying their wings in haste, accelerating their passage, saying,-—-" Pass on, pass on quickly ! Let us avoid the land of death, the land of destruction !" Provence, and many other departments in the south, are barren deserts, peopled by every living tribe, and therefore vegetable nature is sadly impoverished. You do not interrupt with impunity the natural harmonies. The bird levies a tax on the plant, but he is its protector. It is a matter of notoriety that the bustard has almost disappeared from Champagne and Provence. The heron has passed away ; the stork is rare. As we gi'adually encroach upon the soil, these species, partial to dusty wastes and morasses, depart to seek a livelihood else- where. Our progress in one sense is our poverty. In England the same fact has been observed. (See the excellent articles on Sport and Natural History, translated from Messrs. St. John, Knox, Gosse, and , in the Revue Britannique.) The heath-cock retires before the step of the cultivator ; the quail passes into Ireland. The ranks of the herons grow daily thinner before the utilitarian iTriprovements of the nineteenth century. But to these causes we must add the barbarism of man, which so heedlessly destroys a throng of innocent species. Nowhere, says M. Pavie, a French traveller, is game more timid in our fields. Woe to the ungrateful people ! And hj this phrase I mean the sporting crowd who, unmindful of the numerous benefits we owe to animals, have exterminated innocent life. A terribls sentence of the Creator weighs upon the tribes of sportsmen,—they can create Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of t
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