lxviii 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



venders were shy with me ; but as we got better 

 acquainted, nothing could surpass their civility, 

 and their wishes to impart every information to 

 me ; and when they had procured a fine and 

 lare specimen, they always put it in a drawer 

 apart for me. These birdmen outwardly had 

 the appearance of Italian banditti, but it was 

 all outside and nothing more ; they were good 

 men notwithstanding their uncouth looks, and 

 good Christians too, for I could see them wait- 

 ing at the door of the church of the Jesuits, by 

 half-past four o'clock on a winter's morning, to 

 be ready for the first mass. 



I preserved eighty birds, a porcupine, a 

 badger, some shell-fish, and a dozen land tor- 

 toises, whilst I was in Rome ; and these escaped 

 the shipwreck by having been forwarded to 

 Leghorn, some time previous to our embarking 

 at Civita Vecchia for that port. 



Whilst we were viewing the lofty fragment 

 of a wall which towers amid the surrounding 

 ruins of Caracalla's baths, I saw a hole in it 

 which is frequented by the large eagle owl of 

 Europe. A fearless adventurer had managed 

 to get a young one out of it the year before, 

 and he had sold it to the gardener at the 



