Arizona republican., 1906-12-31
ROMAN GRUEllY ALIVE
 IN ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS
Descendants of Nero a Menace 70 American Woods and Fields-Wan- ton Song-bird Slaughtered.


 been handed down trait of character
 which is today becoming recognized a'
 growing menace to the woods ant
 fields of America Made to be takel
 and destroyed" has been the motto oI
 Italy toward its wild life since the
 days of Nero. It still voices the in-
 stinct of the hords of immigrants from
 that country, who today swarm
 through every region of the United
 States in the van of American enter
 prise. Ten million wild birds each year
 in Italy fall prey to the indiscrimi
 nate butchery of the descendants ot
 ancient Rome. Many thousands of the
 harmless songsters of our country were 1 last year killed by rowing Italians from
 construction gangs and camps
 Between this foreign ignorance and
 prejudice and the helpless flocks of
 song and non-g game birds, whose ex- | tinction it eventually threatens, the
 National Association of Audubon Soci-
 cities has taken a firm stand for pro-
 tection. Under its inspiration special
 laws have been enacted in several
 states 10 control alien hunters. In the
 annual report of the association, just | published, William Butcher. it's pres ident, calls special attention to this
 menace to our harmless bird life and
 urges ;he passage in every section of
 the country of a law. requiring a ll-
 cense for aliens who would shoot and
 penalizing them vigorously for wilful or ignorant infringement of our game laws.
 NW hg deputy game wardens. were killed by these alien bands of "pOt-hunters,7 while attempting to protect the feath- cred songsters in the woods of Penns sylvania and Wisconsin from slaugh- ter. only recently an officer of the Audubon organization was fired upon and struck at with the deadly stiletto while attempting tO arrest one of a marauding gang of Italians in ROckland county in New York state. These in cidents have called the attention of the Audubon society to the acuteneSS and extent of this unfortunate situa- tion, and during the coming year an earnest effort will be made by them tO cooperate with Gll friends Of bird life in America in an intelligent and firm movement 10 check the growing evil. It is realized by the association that ignorance and custom are almost as largely responsible for the whole sale inroads Of the Italians upon our birds as wilful or wanton cruelty. Ef- forts will consequently be made to en- Tighten the foreigners on our attitud.. toward the harmless woodland song sters as well as to hold them firmly in check.
 Some light is thrown on the attitude Of these alien "pot-hunters" in their ndiscriminate destruction of all bird Iife-so inexplicable to an Anfsrican- by Francis Ii. Herrick. an authority or ornithology. who has just returned from an investigation of conditions in Italy. In an article especially prepared for Bird Lore" the organ of the Au- dubon societies. he declares that Italy has become a practically birdless country.
 Italians seem to possess two rather contrary traits" he says. marked kindness toward children. and cruelty toward animals. Twice in the year. in the late fall and early spring. Italian fill their windows with things for hunters, and the grea- army of migratory birds begins to pay the penalty of entering a hostile coun- try. Throughout the length and breadth l Of the peninsula, song and game-birds l as well as birds of prey. are snaFed. | ne,ted and shot. with no discrimination | as to size or kind to be sent, with few | exceptions, to the grill-houses of Ma | ples and Rome. or to markets in any l of the larger Italian towns String | Of birds are hawked about the streets [ and hung in the windows of shops-eF- pecially in the small markets. and in f Inc ROsticerie. or grill -hOuses-as was once the custom in our southern cities rom Baltimore to New Orleans. and | has not wholly ceased in (. The dead birds are displayed oa II marble slabs or wooden tables. all II neatly arranged in little piles on green caves. and often plucked and ready 'or the spit. In the markets of Italy Il ire to be found. almost without ex- ,eption. all the common birds of Eu- Ope. Indeed. the materials for the arge and fine collection of stuffed 'irds in the museum of the University fl Rome have been almost wholly ob- aimed from Roman markets. during he past fifty or seventy-five years. With an interval Of absence in bring. l spent over four months in taly, from the last of October until he last of June, chiefly at Rome. and n the provinces. Having walked and riven many miles in the country at he time of the year when birds should bound. I have received but one inn Italy has become a land rithout birds. The peninsula of Italy Drms an important route for the migrants. which. coming from the orth and west of Europe. pass the ounds of the Mediterranean to winter n northern Africa, Egypt and the Nil- alley to the Soudan and south of the quator. So the Italians have. for cen uries. been killing not only their own irds but those which belong equall.5 D northern and southern nations. It ,. first of all. question of interna- \ Ional agreement and legislation, for nc may ask "of what use is 1t to pro- ect the wild birds of England anG : Iermany for the Italians 10 kill in