52 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



Nile mud by Nubian women, for domestic pigeons 

 to nest in. Similar material has probably not been 

 experimented with in Britain, though the mud 

 cottages of the New Forest are pronounced warm 

 and comfortable as human dwellings. The same 

 writer also alludes to the "pigeon-towers " for the 

 wild birds, which are a conspicuous feature of Nile 

 villages. The pigeons are tempted to them by 

 convenient brushwood perches outside, and en- 

 couraged to build by a provision of pots and 

 potsherds inside. It is not wholly a matter of 

 sentiment. They are valued for the sake of the 

 manure ; and one is occasionally killed for a special 

 feast. 



PLUME SALES. 



The supplies at the Commercial Sale Rooms on 

 October nth, 1904, included 239 packages of 

 " osprey " feathers, East Indian, South American, 

 and Chinese, all being plumes of herons and 

 egrets. Of birds-of-paradise there were 1344 

 light-plumed and 1725 various, the former meeting 

 less demand than of late. Miscellaneous bird- 

 skins and quills were comprised in 130 cases, and 

 included Victoria crown pigeons (heads and 

 necks, 3s.), jungle cocks, tanagers, cardinals, tro- 

 gons, red ibis, orioles, and humming-birds. 

 Longtail trogons realised 9s., humming-birds went 

 as low in some cases as %d. There were also six 

 cases of peacock feathers and six cases of so-called 

 vulture (rhea) feathers. 



At a skin-sale at the College-hill Sale Rooms on 

 October 25, 100 lyre-bird tails were offered. 



SMALL BIRDS IN ITALY. 



The Society's enquiries into the decrease of the 



swallow have brought together much information 



on the persecution of small birds in Italy. That 



little birds are common articles of food in that 



poetic land is a familiar fact ; they are sold in the 



markets of every town, not so much as provender 



for the poorer classes, to whom the tiny bodies of 



warblers or goldcrests offer little sustenance, but 



for the tables of the wealthier and, more especially. 



for the hotels and boarding houses. This custom 



of eating song birds, long practised in Italy and 



France, is also fairly general in Spain, and, to 



'"udge from the increasing demand for larks for 



smart dinner parties and charity balls, it is now 



apparently adopted in England. The English are 



indeed said to be notably greedy of such dishes at 



Continental tables. For this purpose the small 



birds are slaughtered by tens of thousands in Italy, 

 most largely in the southern and central provinces. 

 At the migration season nets are erected on the 

 plains and the seashore, forty feet high and four or 

 five miles in extent. The birds are decoyed by 

 a fluttering comrade, or, weary from their long 

 journey, drop down easy victims. They are sold 

 at a halfpenny or a penny a piece, and the trade is 

 a thriving one : it touches more classes than the 

 professional birdcatcher, the Archbishop of Sorrento, 

 for example, deriving a large share of his income 

 from the rent of land let for this purpose. 



The second enemy of the little bird is the owner 

 of the cheap gun license, who regards swallows as 

 peculiarly well fitted to exercise his skill, and who 

 endeavours to beat the record by the number he 

 can bring down in an hour. They are also killed, 

 to some extent, for millinery. Italy has no statute 

 law for bird protection. Each province fixes its 

 own Close time, but in some cases this is practically 

 useless, as it does not cover either the spring or 

 autumn migration ; and in other instances it is 

 nullified to a great extent by the limitation of the 

 law to cultivated ground, and the entire exemption 

 of uncultivated land and the seashore. 



Efforts have been made for some years to remedy 

 this state of things, and a Bill, which will largely 

 restrict the trade, has been before eight or nine 

 Parliaments. The present Minister of Agriculture 

 is now introducing a Bill which proposes to give 

 absolute protection to swallows and swifts. The 

 Italian Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals, under the intrepid leadership of Mr. L. 

 H. Hawksley, are doing much in the matter, as in 

 animal protection generally; and a proportion of 

 the clergy, especially the English priests, are in 

 favour of the objects of the Societies. 



THE THIEF AND THE POSSESSOR. 



Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace writes to us :— 

 " I wish to make a suggestion for an amendment 

 of the Wild Birds Protection Acts next time they 

 come up for discussion. It is a maxim of law, and 

 a very proper one, that the receiver is as bad as 

 the thief, because if there were no receivers and 

 no purchasers of stolen goods, there would be 

 little or no robbery of such goods. This rule 

 seems to apply to the dealer in birds illegally cap- 

 tured or procured, but does it apply to the pur- 

 chaser from the dealer? And if not, why not ? If 

 there were no buyers among the educated and 

 well-to-do, there would be few if any bird-catchers 

 or dealers to break the law. If boys and labourers 



