Passion of Italians for Birds. 223 



the place where their nesting is going on. But 

 it is now very rarely, if we may trust Italian 

 naturalists, that either Ring-dove or Stock-dove 

 passes a summer in Italy. Birds seek a cool 

 climate for their breeding-places ; probably be- 

 cause in very hot countries the food suitable to 

 their nestlings will not be found in the breeding- 

 season. Has the climate of Italy become hotter 

 in the last two thousand years, discouraging these 

 birds from lingering south of the Alps ? 



This is an old question which has been well 

 thrashed out by the learned, and the general con- 

 clusion seems to be in the affirmative. The last 

 eminent writer on the subject takes this view, 1 and 

 his argument would receive a decided clinch if it 

 could be proved that certain kinds of birds, which 

 formerly bred in the country, do so no longer, and 

 that this is not due to other causes, such as the 

 well-known passion of the Italians for killing and 

 eating all the birds on which they can lay their 

 hands. 



If we now turn to the first Georgic, in which, 

 following the Greek poet Aratus with freedom 

 1 Nissen, Italische Landeskunde, p. 374. 



