212 SPORT IN EUROPE 



character, of customs, and of tradition among the widely diversified 

 peoples of the old states. In one respect only matters were left 

 unchanged : the game laws have not yet been brought under one 

 uniform code, but have remained subject to the various regulations of 

 the old states. One right only is recognised throughout all Italy, and 

 that is the right of the sportsman to kill game in every part of the 

 country, provided he takes out a licence costing 13 /ire* and respects 

 the close seasons and other regulations prescribed in the different 

 localities. Of such licences great numbers avail themselves, as all 

 classes in Italy are exceptionally fond of shooting. Everybody likes 

 to walk through the fields carrying a gun, even with the poor chance 

 of shooting no more than a wretched little sparrow. Those who do 

 not care for shootino- find their amusement in nettino', and even 

 ecclesiastics have a taste for this insidious pursuit, that makes terrible 

 havoc among the birds, even among song birds, and those species 

 most beneficial to the agriculturist. In the month of May, when the 

 quail arrive so exhausted by their passage over the Mediterranean 

 that they are barely able to make the land, and flying so low that, if 

 the sea is at all rough, many are caught by the waves and drowned, 

 special trains take a crowd of licensed shooters from Rome to the 

 seashore to meet the tired birds, who are, on their arrival, received 

 with a murderous fire, and are slaucjhtered on the threshold of the 

 land where they hoped to breed. A yet worse destruction is effected 

 by nets spread to welcome them on landing. 



Altogether, there is not the necessary protection for the breeding 

 of game in Italy that would encourage the landowners to preserve their 



* A lira is the same as a franc, i.e. ghi. 



