THE



Hv(cultural /Ilba^asme,


SE1NG THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCI ETY.



Third Series— VOL. III. — No. 3. —All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1912



A ROCCOLO IN ITALY.


By Hubert D. Astley, M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


The bird’s death-trap ! The autumnal migration through

the valleys, up the gullies, a constant flitting and flutter of wings.

They are going south, these thousands and thousands, and what

thousands never reach their destination, for the rocolli are there

awaiting them, perched on every available wooded projection and

promontary. Very picturesque to look at. A flat piece of ground

on an eminence is chosen, sometimes not far above a lake, some¬

times higher up the mountains, A small building is erected,

looking in the distance like the remains of some ruined tower, in

front of which is a large circle of young trees, trained into the

form of a bower. The building, of stone, with usually a roof of

the same material, consists of a ground floor and an upper one.

The room on the ground floor faces towards the actual roccolo,

and in it is kept a heterogeneous collection of decoy birds, as well

as a few of the fresh caught ones for which there may be a sale

as living specimens. It is quite small, and quite dirty, this lower

place.


In the one I visited, there were as far as freshly caught

birds went, some dozen Goldfinches, a fine Fieldfare, a Redwing

(it was the 20th of October), one or two Song Thrushes, two or

three Coal Tits, a Serin Finch and some Hawfinches. One was

sorry for these prisoners, but all pity for them was swamped at

finding two blinded birds, blinded by a hot wire I fancy, and

blinded for life.


The abomination and the vileness of it! The ignorant

brutality ! These poor birds are supposed to call all the more



