Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-09-18
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3 Slaughter of Birds in Italy. 5

A journey taken to Italy last
autumn had primarily for its object
the personal investigation of the prog
that country. / must admit that it
still fiourishes, as it did 20 years ago,
and, in consequence of improved
methods, at least as regards the pur-
suit on a small scale, it is carried on
even more briskly than before. The
| implements for sharing have in
creased in number, and are much inn
proved. and on the other hand, the
number of the hunted birds has de-
y, creased, the surest sign of the disap-
| pearance of our birds in general.
| Everywhere / heard the same COM
plant from birdcatchers and dealers,
that during the last decade the num-
Der of birds had yearly decreased and
! that the business hardly paid any
, more. On the one hand, the once
| fiourishing export of small birds has
noticeably decreased, even in some
| respects ceased entirely; on the other
hand, the price of the birds offered in
the Italian markets has decidedly
risen. While for example, in the
| sos, one dozen ''piccoli uccelli'' little
birds)-that is to say, every conceiv-
able kind, even robins and finches,
cost on an average from 80 to so
| centesimi, and on warm days, when
the catch was very good and the ex-
port not practicable, as little as five
centesimi.- the price today for one
dozen of the same birds has risen as
high as from so centesimi to one lire
Only the bitter-tasting sparrows
have remained comparatively cheap:
almost exclusively field sparrows, for
have seldom seen a house sparrow
in market, and these, displayed daily
in large numbers, are to be had for
from so to 60 centesimi, or even less.
When one sees the quantity of birds
offered daily for sale it seems hardly
credible that they can all be con-
sumed in one day, and in one place.
1t can only be explained by the fact
that these small birds are a food or
delicacy for the poor laborer as well
as the rich man, and, above all. for
the countless foreigners in Italy Just
at this season. Yes, | consider the
yearly increasing international hotels
as the chief consumers of innumerable
birds. The man of the people in most
cases has his birds cooked in the
public kitchens, many of which | also
visited in my quest for information
in 70 he foC 70
of the consumer, are usually run on
to spits by the dozen, alternately a
bird, then piece of bread and a sage
leaf, and roasted over a charcoal fire
A quarter of an hour suffices to cook
| the small creatures in their own fat.
and then, with the bread roasted at
the same time, they are eaten on the
spot.
sa the largest number OF birds.
and certainly not fewer now than
formerly, in Milan and Florence, but
on the other hand there were not
nearly as many in Como and other
small towns. The reason for this
lies in the general disappearance of
the birds. While there We're formerly
so many caught that all the markets
could be literally supplied and still
enough left over for expectation, to-
day the entire product of all Italy
barely suffices for its own large cities.
For that reason it would be a great
mistake to estimate the entire num-
Der of birds destroyed, from the large
quantity one sees in the aboyemen-
toned markets. These are gathered
from all parts, and in some cases
come from very remote districts. Bird
catchers and dealers at first hand
withhold their prey from their own
countrymen, because in the large
cities, on account of the constant de-
mand, they are surer of higher and
steadier profit than in the small
places
In Milan and Florence | saw large
quantities of birds, probably from
10000 to 10000 daily. The kinds vary
naturally according to the season and
the corresponding migrations. During
my observations of last year early in
October the largest number of Birds
consisted of larks and robins; of the
latter on some mornings l saw as
many as three or four thousand in
market
In many of the robins noticed that
the thigh bone was split, and learned
that these had been caught in ar
cnetli tspring traps), in which case
the broken bone was unavoidable. It
seems most remarkable that so many
birds can be caught in this way. when
only one can be taken at the time,
and each trap requires so much time
and trouble 10 prepare and watch.
i For, even though the proportion of
birds caught in this way is small COM
| pared to those taken in nets, l could
on many mornings count hundreds
with broken legs.
! Next in number TO robins and larks
come the various thrushes-unfor-
tunately, not only missed thrnshes and
redwinss. but also our beautiful song
| thrusheS. Moreover. with us also in
Germany. according TO reliable Stats
4 tics. about so per cent. of the so-called