196 Bird - Lore 



the pleasure and the luxury ought not to be obtained at a loss to the public 

 economy, and, therefore, the coercive measures framed to protect it have to be 

 such as produce efficient results." 



Had the provisions recommended by Spanna been adopted in 1898, and 

 stringently enforced throughout the Kingdom of Italy, not only that country, but 

 the whole continent of Europe, would have been benefited. The proposals are 

 designed to prevent wholesale slaughter by restricting the times and methods of 

 killing wild birds. No discrimination is made between kinds supposed to be useful, 

 useless, or injurious, so far as agriculture or any of the interests of man are con- 

 cerned. 



Considering the antiquity of the practice of killing birds in Italy without any 

 discrimination whatever, and the state of public opinion upon the whole subject of 

 bird protection, the proposals of Sig. Spanna are commendable, and if they were 

 adopted and carried out they would mark a great stride in the right direction. ' 



We learn further from Lico's Manual that demands for new and uniform 

 laws to regulate hunting have not been made in Italy alone, but in other countries 

 also. Since the migratory birds change their habitation at stated periods, it is for 

 the interests of all countries through which they pass to protect them by common 

 consent and for the common good. Again, we are told that a great ornithological 

 Congress was held at Aix, in Provence, November 9-14, 1897, and another at 

 Gratz, in Stiria, August 5-8,1898. The resolutions passed at these meetings were 

 considered by the different governments; but to the proposals made by France, 

 with the concurrence of adjoining states, unfortunately, the Italian government did 

 not agree. 



From the preceding extracts it will be seen that those Italians who have given 

 any thought to the subject of birds, in relation to man, are by no means agreed upon 

 the desirability of evoking the aid of the law for the protection of birds of any 

 kind. Lico presents both sides of the question from the standpoint of an intelli- 

 gent Italian, and I hope it has been made sufficiently clear to what extent I am 

 indebted to him for the substance of many of the preceding paragraphs. His 

 conclusion of the whole matter, in which his own sympathies are clearly ex- 

 pressed, is given in the following sentiments: " Birds, like all other creatures 

 endowed with feeling, ought not to be subjected to needless suffering on the part 

 of man; they deserve his protection. This sounds well! Again, when everything 

 is considered, birds do more good than harm. The conclusion is logical! But the 

 excess of utility over damage is so great we should favor in all possible ways the 

 multiplication of birds. How would that sound? This is a question to which 

 we should give more direct attention, before insisting on new and definite 

 results in the work of national and international legislation. Heaven forbid 

 that a humanitarian cause like this should one day make its defenders repent of 

 superfluous zeal !" 



Thus, we are brought again to the main ])r()blem: " Should the birds really be 

 be protected?" as the Italians conceive it, but it cannot be discussed at the close 



