Bird Protection in Italy as It Impresses the Italian i6i 



destruction of bird-life in Italy falls not upon the resident species which alone 

 belong to the Italian soil, but upon the migrants, — the birds of passage 

 which belong to the rest of the world. Owing to the compass-lilce preci- 

 sion of their instincts, one and all have kept for ages to the fatal overland 

 route in passing the peninsula of Italy on their migrations. The resident 

 species are as dead as the ancient Romans themselves, who fortified the 

 Capitoline Hill or built the Colosseum. When the migrants really give out, 

 Mr. Editor, so that they are no longer piled in your markets like grain, it 

 will be a sign not that "grave damage" has been done to Italy alone, but 

 that a large part of the bird-life of two continents has been wiped out. In 

 discussing the relation of birds to man, the migratory instincts, and the 

 relation of the country to the rest of the world, are just as important as the 

 food habits. Where do the millions of Swallows and the smaller migratory 

 song-birds, which are annually slaughtered for food in Italy, come from, if 

 not from central, northern, eastern and western Europe, and where do 

 many of them go, if not to Africa by way of Italy and Spain ? 



{To be concluded) 



WOOD THRUSH ON NEST 

 Photographed by F. E. Howe, Sterling, Ills., June ii, 1906 



