Cruelty to Birds 217 



The flash of fury that shot into that Roman's eyes 

 was a sight. 



Whenever I passed through the Piazza on sub- 

 sequent days, he would make for me gesticulating and 

 threatening. He was the more angry because several 

 people had gathered round and heard my protest. 



But Naples is worse still in its openly cruel treat- 

 ment of dumb animals, although the English, who sow 

 the seeds of practical Christian humanity wherever they 

 go, have done much to put it down, and the Queen 

 Dowager of Italy herself has long ago taken the matter 

 in hand. 



By a lady, who was once one of her ladies in wait- 

 ing, I was told of Queen Margherita's keen distress 

 when, on visiting a town in her country, the people 

 not merely threw flowers in front of her carriage, but 

 also little birds with their flight feathers drawn, so 

 that they fell fluttering under the horses' feet ! 



Hundreds of migrants, arriving from Africa in 

 April, are caught in the " environs " of Naples. 



Seeing a man by the public gardens with a very 

 large flat cage of cane bars, I walked up to him, and 

 found in it about two hundred blue-headed wagtails ; 

 lovely little birds with blue-grey heads, green backs 

 and tails, the latter edged with white, and breasts of a 

 brilliant saffron yellow. 



One sees them in winter time in the fields border- 

 ing the Nile. 



I asked him for how much he would sell me the 

 lot. " Cinque lire, Signore " (five francs), was the 

 answer. I handed him the money. 



