H4 Alexander Goodman More. [i860 



and far more become the prey of Hawks ; but it is man's 

 pursuit which destroys most. It is in Italy above all that 

 the taste for sport has degenerated into a reckless passion 

 which has become universal. 



" ' Not only Woodcocks are taken ; not only Quails, 

 Pigeons, and other kinds of game : but they pursue ruth- 

 lessly, on their passage, the Swallows which in our country 

 every one protects, the Fly-catchers and Redstarts so 

 pretty, the Nightingales, and every species of warbler. In 

 this country every inhabitant, old and young, merchant, 

 mechanic, priest, and noble, equipped with traps, nets, 

 guns, with Hawks and Owls ' (to attract the attention of 

 the smaller birds), ' carries on against birds a war to the 

 knife. On the shores of Lago Magiore there are taken 

 every year 60,000 singing birds. At Bergamo, Verona, 

 Chiavenna, Brescia, it is by millions they are destroyed; 

 yet these are in great proportion little birds which with us 

 nobody would think of molesting, but which, quite the 

 reverse, are protected for their sweet song. This is the 

 reason why Italy, herself the land of music and song, is so 

 poor in singing birds, as is also the Canton Tessin, where 

 for many years the sport has been practised in the Italian 

 fashion, so that even a Sparrow has become a rarity : 1500 

 birds have fallen to the share of one man. 



" ' The effect of this wholesale bird-hunting is felt in 

 Germany, not herself guiltless in the matter, since at Halle 

 and some other places, Larks, and even Swallows are sent 

 to the spit.' 



"Far be it from Englishmen ever to have conceived such 

 gastronomic intentions. Alas! that Swallows should, even 

 in this country, be sometimes shot as a trial of skill (where 

 indeed no skill is required). But, as was said before, it is 

 the taste for what is wrongly esteemed sport, and the 

 unscientific collectors whether of birds or eggs that do 

 the harm. 



" In conclusion, I would quote the words of a friend of 

 mine, who has thus embodied the tale of what he hears 

 befell some Falcons last year. Though his appeal is per- 

 haps somewhat too passionate, I am confident his words 

 will awaken an echo in the breasts of nearly all British 



