Destructive Insects and Utility of Birds. 
235 
and tlioso, too, were of other use, for they attracted quantities of 
caterpillars, which fed on their green leaves, and thus spared the 
orchards. All the little nooks so useful to birds, both as 
hatching-places and hunting-grounds, disappear one by one. 
In woods, the mistake of cutting down right and left old trees 
full of small holes, has been, unfortunately, understood too late, 
and thereby numbers of the best Insectivora have been deprived 
of commodious nesting-places : unavailing regrets from those 
incessantly exposed to the havocs of wood-insects will follow on 
the disappearance, for years to come, of their best and most active 
allies of the forest. United, the causes we have just referred to 
would alone be sufficient to explain the heavy and sensible dimi- 
nution of small birds ; but there are others of considerable conse- 
quence, for instance, the frequent netting and shooting by man, 
and the destruction of nests by children and cats. In some 
countries no nest is out of reach, and none are left unplundered ; 
and it is especially the most useful destroyers of insects which 
are plundered in quantities, such as the titmouse, the chaffinch, the 
warbler, and the redbreast. Nightingales in some places have 
become so very scarce, that in spots formerly enlivened by their 
songs every spring, they have not been heard for more than ten 
years. Here and there the absurd ordinances, enjoining every 
government keeper to destroy woodpeckers and cuckoos, and 
even offering a premium for every head brought in, are still the 
law of the land. 
But the cause which exercises a still more fatal influence 
on the diminution of our most useful birds of passage, is 
the exterminatory hunt they are subjected to on the part of 
Italians. It is a well-known fact that at the period of their 
spring migration, and still more in autumn, Italians are seized 
with a mania for killing small birds. Men of all ages and 
conditions, nohili, merchants, priests, artisans, and peasants, all 
abandon their daily tasks, to attack, like banditti, the troops of 
passing visitors. By the river-side, in the fields, all around is 
heard the report of fire-arms ; nets are laid, traps set, twigs 
covered with bird-lime hang on every bush. On every hill 
adapted to the purpose is placed a sort of trap (roccolo), full of 
owls and sparrow-hawks, to attract and slaughter the little 
stranger. The objects of their pursuit are not those birds which 
in other countries are usually chosen for purposes of sport ; on 
the contrary, they select the little Insectivora, the singing-birds, 
and particularly the nightingales. Swallows even— birds generally 
protected by man — are taken in quantities, and often in a most 
cruel manner. A small insect or feather is attached to a hook, 
held by a long thread, and allowed to float in the air, to attract 
the swallow as it skims past. To form some idea of the 
