53 



4. Fowling with limed grass, with nets, and the use of limed twigs in 

 bushes and shrubs is permitted only on the day of December 25. 



5. The pursuit of Partridges with caged call birds ends September 16. 

 A reward of 30 Lire for information leading to conviction of destroyers of 

 nestlings and brooding birds, and of persons using limed grasses and nets. 



A reward is offered of 10 lire for information resulting in conviction of 

 hixnting in close season, or of selling or being in possession of game. 



During the close season it is forbidden to expose for sale, to sell, buy, carry 

 or keep any kind of game. Any person discovered in the country ofi the 

 roads or paths, carrying nets or trammels of any description, or with 

 decoy birds, foods, or baits, or any other artifice for taking wild creatures 

 (selvaggina), during the close season, or without a regular permit, will be 

 considered in the act of hunting. 



Here we have many words, but little meaning. The bold 

 fiat of Rule 1 is quahfied by exceptions so vague and so 

 loosely worded, that it is sapped of most of its force. The birds 

 excepted are not harmful, rather the contrary, but they are 

 sizeable and esculent, and obviously it is the fowler, not the 

 fowl, who is studied. 



" Aquatic birds " is a mde term to legislate ^^ith, and as for 

 " birds of passage," what bird is not, at some time or another ? 

 It is clear that here are endless loopholes for escape, and oppor- 

 tunities to raise technical difficulties. What chance of nesting 

 is left to the survivors of the birds named ? 



Rule 2 is commonly disregarded ; nor is its significance 

 apparent. Moreover, the months of March, April, and May 

 are specially allowed gunners to patrol streams — along which 

 there is always a right of way — and such places are favourite 

 resorts of most kinds of birds. 



Some of the Italian fowling devices are elaborately prepared. 

 The "roccolo " consists of a shrubbery — sometimes with a pool — 

 some 15 metres in diameter, surrounded by nets 3 metres high. 

 In the centre is a tree, at the foot of which are caged or braced 

 decoys. The passage birds, attracted by the call of the decoys, 

 which often are bhnded, pitch in the shrubs or on the tree, from 

 the top of which a dummy Hawk can be made to appear, wliich 

 scares the birds into the nets. Or an Owl is fastened on the 

 ground, and some caged Thrushes placed near by, whose harsh 

 cries attract the migrating wild birds. This practice is much in 

 vogue in the provinces of Turin, of Alessandria, and Novare. 



The " passata " is still more comphcated, and there exist 

 permanently three celebrated ones in the Brescia district, which 

 annually make immense captures during the spring and autumn 

 migrations. Springes and nooses, sometimes baited with, five 

 insects, and skilfuUy placed in those districts among the moun- 

 tains, where birds are knoA'toi to pass, are responsible for the 

 taking of great numbers of songbirds. Any and all of these 



