“‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘them big birds soon gits moulty and go off.’ Well, when I paid my bill I went up to the semblance of proprietor--it was one of these establishments where the only creature responsible is ‘Co.’--and I said: “‘I see you keep a hawk out there?’ “‘Yes. Fine bird. Quite an attraction!’ “‘People like to look at it?’ “‘Just so. They’re uncommon--that sort.’ “‘Well,’ I said ‘I call it cruel to keep a hawk shut up like that.’ “‘Cruel? Why? What’s a hawk, anyway--cruel devils enough!’ “‘My dear sir,’ I said, ‘they earn their living just like men, without caring for other creatures’ sufferings. You are not shut up, apparently, for doing that. Good-bye.’” As he said this, my friend looked at me, and added: “You think that was a lapse of taste. What would _you_ have said to a man who cloaked the cruelty of his commercial instincts by blaming a hawk for being what Nature had made him?” There was such feeling in his voice that I hesitated long before answering. “Well,” I said, at last, “in England, anyway, we only keep such creatures in captivity for scientific purposes. I doubt if you could find a single instance nowadays of its being done just as a commercial attraction.” He stared at me. “Yes,” he said, “we do it publicly and scientifically, to enlarge the mind. But let me put to you this question. Which do you consider has the larger mind--the man who has satisfied his idle curiosity by staring at all the caged animals of the earth, or the man who has been brought up to feel that to keep such indomitable creatures as hawks and eagles, wolves and panthers, shut up, to gratify mere curiosity, is a dreadful thing?” To that singular question I knew not what to answer. At last I said: “I think you underrate the pleasure they give. We English are so awfully fond of animals!” § 2. We had entered Battersea Park by now, and since my remark about our love of beasts we had not spoken. A wood-pigeon which had been strutting before us just then flew up into a tree and began puffing out its breast. Seeking to break the silence, I said: “Pigeons are so complacent.” My friend smiled in his dubious way, and answered: “Do you know the ‘blue rock?’” “No.”