BIRDS. 473 
every week and the young birds are killed as soon as they 
are ready to fly out, and are put into. the frying-pan. We 
have seen as many as five or six dozen pots on the same 
wall, nearly all filled with nests, for sparrows raise many 
broods every year. 
In Italy the consumption of these birds is carried on, on a 
large scale. Not only are the churches riddled with thous- 
ands. of holes, in which the sparrows make their nests, but 
there are, at the road crossings, high square towers, which 
are built for this purpose. An overseer has them locked; 
He climbs inside, and clips the wings of the young, to com- 
pel them to stay till they are full grown. 
During the Franco-Italian war against Austria, the French 
soldiers bought the young sparrows, which they found 
delicious eating. If the sparrows destroy our bees, can we 
not destroy them? It is better to eat than to be eaten! 
If—as in the olden time of fables— birds could be moved 
by human language, it would be worth while to post up, in 
the vicinity of our Apiaries, the old Greek poet’s address to 
the swallow: 
* Attic maiden, honey fed, 
Chirping warbler, bears't away 
Thou the busy buzzing bee, 
To thy callow brood a prey ? 
Warbler, thou a warbler seize? 
Winged, one with lovely wings? 
Guest thyself, by Summer brought, 
Yellow guests whom Summer brings? 
Wilt not quickly let it drop? 
*Tis not fair; indeed, ’tis wrong, 
That the ceaseless warbler should 
Die by mouth of ceaseless song.” 
819. No Apiarist ought ever to encourage the destruction 
of any birds, except the too-plentiful sparrows, because of 
their fondness for bees. Unless we can check the custom 
of destroying, on any pretense, our insectivorous birds, we 
