1 84 Bishop, Birds in (he Markets of Southern Europe. LApril 



of a Shrike (Lanius r.vcuhifor algcrirnsis) Blackbirds {Meriila 

 merula algira) Song Thrushes and Redbreasts {Erithacus rubecula 

 witherbyi) we met some twenty miles from Algiers on Jan. 10. 



January 17 was market day at Setif on the high plateau in the 

 interior of Algeria, and there I noticed three natives with about 

 100 Calandra Larks and Skylarks (Alauda arvensis arvensis and 

 A. a. cantareUa) for sale. 



At Biskra, an oasis in the northern border of the Sahara, the 

 natives do not eat birds, so none were for sale in the markets, but 

 I found Sand Grouse (Ptcroclcs arenarius) and Red-legged Partridges 

 at the store of a Frenchman. In Constantine on F'eb. 5 and 6, 

 I saw a few Sky and Crested Larks (Alauda arvensis arvensis and 

 GaJerida theJdoe supcrflua) and Song Thrushes in the market, and 

 Thrushes were on the bill of fare at Hammam Meskoutine. Behind 

 the hotel there I noticed on Feb. 8 the feathers of hundreds of 

 Thrushes, Starlings and Blackbirds that had been plucked for the 

 guests. 



In Tunis I visited the large central market — one of the finest 

 I saw abroad — on Feb. 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19 and 20, and found 

 it to contain hundreds of Starlings {Sturnus vulgaris vulgaris) 

 Sky, Crested and Calandra Larks (Alauda arvensis cantareUa^ 

 Galerida cristafa macrorhyncha and Galerida theklce harfcrti) and 

 Song Thrushes, besides an abundance of what we consider game. 



In Sicily Mr. Whitaker, the eminent English ornithologist, 

 told me small birds were not sold in the markets, but between 

 Feb. 23 and March 12 we frequently saw men out hunting espe- 

 cially on Sundays. 



At Naples on Sunday, March 19, Plover was served on the hotel 

 table, and we noticed a man out in the country with a gun. On 

 March 20, I saw a man with a bunch of Ruffs (Machetes pugnax), 

 Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa), Lapwings and small birds 

 for sale, and on March 16 on the Via Roma, the busiest street of the 

 city, we met a man with a number of Greenfinches sitting on his 

 arms and shoulders. To a cursory glance, these birds seemed well 

 but stupid. Why they did not fly away, for their wings were 

 uninjured, is probably explained by the following clipping from the 

 Italian Gazette for Dec. 1, 1910, an English paper published in 

 Florence. 



