FROM 44 CONSTANTINOPLE/' 
Edmondo Amicis. 
jONSTANTINOPLE has one 
grace and gayety peculiar to 
itself, that comes from an 
infinite number of birds 
of every kind, for 
which the Turks nourish a warm 
sentiment and regard. Mosques, groves, 
old walls, gardens, palaces all resound 
with song, the whistling and twitter- 
ing of birds ; everywhere wings are 
fluttering and life and harmony abound. 
The sparrows enter the houses boldly, 
and eat out of women's and children's 
hands, Swallows nest over the cafe 
doors, and under the arches of the 
bazaars ; Pigeons in innumerable 
swarms, maintained by legacies from 
sultans and private individuals, form 
garlands of black and white along the 
cornices of the cupolas and around the 
terraces of the minarets; Sea-gulls dart 
and play over the water ; thousands of 
Turtle-doves coo amorously among the 
cypresses m the cemeteries ; Crows 
croak about the Castle of the Seven 
Towers; Halcyons come and go in long 
files between the Black Sea and the 
Sea of Marmora ; and Storks sit upon 
the cupolas of the mausoleums. For 
the Turk, each one of these birds has 
a gentle meaning, or a benignant 
virtue : Turtle-doves are favorable to 
lovers, Swallows keep away fire from 
the roofs where they build their nests, 
Storks make yearly pilgrimage to 
Mecca, Halcyons carry the souls of the 
faithful to Paradise. Thus he protects 
and feeds them, through a sentiment 
of gratitude and piety; and they 
enliven the house, the sea, and the 
sepulchre. Every quarter of Stamboul 
is full of the noise of them, bringing 
to the city a sense of the pleasures of 
country life, and continually relishing 
the soul with a reminder of nature. 
There are several kinds of animals, 
points out Cosmos, that have never 
swallowed water. Among these are 
the Lamas of Patagonia and certain 
Gazelles of the far east, and a consider- 
able number of reptiles — Serpents, 
Lizards, and certain Batrachians — that 
live and flourish where there is no 
moisture. A kind of Mouse of the arid 
plains of western America also exists 
where moisture is said to be unknown. 
In the London Zoological Gardens a 
Paroquet lived fifty-two years without 
drinking a drop, and some naturalists 
believe that Hares take no liquid 
except the dew that sometimes forms 
on the grass they eat. Even Cows and 
Goats in France, in the neighborhood 
of the Lozere, almost never drink, yet 
they produce the milk from which is 
made the famous Roquefort cheese. 
