214 Cruelty to Birds 



I thought it very cruel to imprison them on their way 

 to their nesting quarters. My French was faultless ! 

 Consequently she did not mistake my meaning, but 

 truth was not one of the virtues practised by her. " Oh, 

 mon Dieu ! Non ! they have been there for a year ; they 

 are very tame, only Monsieur is a stranger to them." 



The frantic fluttering of the birds belied her words, 

 and their plumage, though frayed a little, was unmis- 

 takably that of birds that had not been in that small 

 shop for a year, or a week either. 



I said, " Ce n'est pas vrai; bonjour, Madame," and 

 departed. 



In Italy one sees most harassing sights. 



In Verona, in the picturesque market-place, where 

 the big white umbrellas, like groups of gigantic mush- 

 rooms, shelter stalls of many wares and fruit, there are 

 in September, at the time of the autumnal migration, 

 trays full of all sorts of birds, freshly trapped and 

 killed. 



I remember seeing quantities of robins and red- 

 starts, as well as titmice, common thrushes, and even 

 blue rock thrushes. 



They were sold for eating ! and are caught in 

 decoys up in the mountains, regularly constructed for 

 that purpose. 



It is said that the Pope [Leo XIII. j takes much 

 pleasure in entrapping small birds in the Vatican garden. 

 If the chief clergyman of Europe does this sort of 

 thing, what are you to expect ? 



Staying at a private villa at Cadenabbia, I remem- 

 ber seeing in the kitchen one day a large dish, around 



