Con espondence.



12 3



had sat over three weeks, in fact nearly four, I examined the eggs and

found one egg clear, and nearly fully-formed young in the other two, but

decomposed. Hubert D. Asteey.


A SUGGESTION.


Sir, — The description, in our January number, of a Roccolo m Italy,

and of the diabolical wholesale “ murder of the innocents,” and the bar¬

barous cruelties inflicted on the wee feathered pilgrims, must make the

hearts of all bird-lovers ache with grief, and their blood boil with fury and

disgust, as it does mine.


Can nothing be done by us to help to stop, for good and all, such

hideous barbarity, such cold-blooded destruction of beautiful life? Could

we, members of the Avicultural Society, each one of us, sign our names to

a petition and send it up to the King of Italy ? What is the Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Italy doing, or rather not doing, to

allow such things. The Society, backed by Queen Margherita, has done

good work in Italy among the animals, why should the birds be neglected ?

Such things are impossible to understand.


I have been living now for over two years in Switzerland, and the

absence of bird-life in this country, especially round about the Rhone

Valley is sadly noticeable, and I think Italy must be greatly to blame for

this. We must also blame the Swiss, for it is only just lately they have

discovered that by eating the small birds their vines are so terribly visited

by insect pests that in some districts the} 7 have had to uproot them whole¬

sale and sell the land for building purposes. Nozu, there is a law against

destroying the small birds, and the people would be only too glad to see

them increase in Switzerland.


There is the hateful gun here, too, and if something is not done to

prevent it, the big brown Ragle will be a thing of the past in the Canton of

Valais, where it is shot whenever it can be got at.


My fellow-members, could we all sign a petition such as I have

mentioned ? Would it be possible for Professor Giacinto Martorelli, head

of the Turati Collection in the Natural History Museum at Milan, who, as

Mr. Astley tells us, is doing such splendid work in that way, to write it for

us, and send it up to the King and Queen Elena, who, I believe, has a very

kind heart. Will somebody second my proposal ?


Alice Hutchinson.


[We print with pleasure Miss Hutchinson’s letter, but we feel that

for the Society to take any active part in attempting to suppress the bird

destruction in Italy would be beyond its legitimate scope. At the same

time we shall be pleased to forward to Professor Martorelli any opinions

members may care to send in. The knowledge that this destruction has

attracted the attention of bird-lovers abroad may strengthen his hands.

—Ed.]



