﻿Italian Bird Life as it Impresses an American To-day 197 



set it up on the quaint little tile stove, light a handful of charcoal, and wind 

 the clock. In every family where poverty is not extreme, roasted wild birds 

 in season are considered an occasional, if not a regular article of diet. 



This deplorable custom of indiscriminate slaughter of wild birds is very 

 ancient, — thousands of years old, — and, as I shall show in a future article, 

 there are abundant references to the evil practice among the classical 

 authors of antiquity. 



The resident population of Italian wild birds has naturally long ago been 

 either reduced to a minimum or destroyed, except in the wildest and most 

 rugged districts where the human inhabitants are few. Thus the great 

 Bustard {Otis tarda), whose native race became extinct in England about 

 1838, miy have been practically exterminated long before that period in Italy. 

 In the Museum of the University of Rome there is a mounted specimen of 

 this wonderful bird, a male, obtained from the Pantheon market in 1832. 



The Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) , Jays {Garrulus glandarius) , Hawks, 

 Owls and Gulls are shot to be eaten by the poorer classes or to serve as 

 food for cats. I saw a man with a Crow on his string in the Piazza di 

 Spagna in February, and frequently found Hawks {Falco) and Owls in the. 

 small Roman shops in winter. 



On the other hand, the Swallows, which are fortunately too active and 

 too expensive targets for all but expert Italian gunners, and the sociable 

 Jackdaw {Coleus monedula — Italian Taccola or Taccoletta) acquire immunity 

 at Rome by dwelling in the very heart of the city, and, in the case of the 

 home-loving Jackdaw, for the entire year. In all Italy, however, it has been 

 estimated that out of a total annual sacrifice of ten millions of wild birds, 

 nearly a third or three millions are Swallows. 



A substantial colony of Jackdaws has taken possession of the fine old brick 

 tower of Borromini in the Santa' Andrea delle Fratre church and adjoining 

 belfry under the Pincian hill. They were our next-door neighbors from 

 October until June, and we seldom looked out of the window without a 

 friendly glance at the rookery ; indeed, it seemed as if a moment rarely 

 passed by day when the colony was not astir, or when their welcome chatter 

 did not reach our ears. The most striking change came over the Jackdaws at 

 the close of February, when, under the influence of spring, their loquacity 

 extended far into the night, and their quaint squealings were to be inter- 

 preted as notes of love. By the first of March their amorous strains began 

 shortly after sundown, and were continued at intervals into the small hours 

 of dawn, when you would hear their reiterative we-owf we-owf , now sug- 

 gesting the wail of an infant, a prowling cat, or a whining puppy. 



When I returned to Rome in May, Swallows had become very abundant, 

 and after sundown it was interesting to watch their evolutions from the 

 house-tops of the city. They seemed to restore, in some measure, that 

 necessary touch of life long since departed from the Campagna. No doubt 



