CHARLES WATERTON, ESQ. Ixvii 



visiting modern schools of sculpture and of 

 painting, I passed a considerable portion of my 

 time in the extensive bird-market of Rome. I 

 must however remark, that the studio of Val- 

 lati, the renowned painter of wild boars, had 

 great attractions for me ; and I have now at 

 home, a wild boar done by him in so masterly 

 a style, and finished so exquisitely, that it ob- 

 tains unqualified approbation from all who in- 

 spect it. 



The bird-market of Rome is held in the en- 

 virons of the Rotunda, formerly the Pantheon. 

 Nothing astonished me more than the quanti- 

 ties of birds which were daily exposed for sale 

 during the season ; I could often count above 

 four hundred thrushes and blackbirds, and often 

 a hundred robin red-breasts in one quarter of 

 it ; with twice as many larks, and other small 

 birds in vast profusion. In the course of one 

 day, seventeen thousand quails have passed the 

 Roman custom-house ; these pretty vernal and 

 autumnal travellers are taken in nets of pro- 

 digious extent on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. In the spring of the year and at the 

 close of summer, cartloads of ringdoves arrive 

 at the stalls near the Rotunda. At first the 



