irds, chiefly redbreasts, hawked through the streets.... Every Sunday
that we went into the country we met numbers of Italians out shooting,
and their bags seemed to consist wholly of small birds.

"At Genoa, San Remo, Monte Carlo and Nice, between December 13 and 29, I
did not visit the central markets, if such exist, but saw frequently
bunches of small birds hanging outside stores.... A gentleman who spent
the fall on an automobile trip through the west of FRANCE _from Brittany
to the Pyrenees, tells me he noticed these bunches of small birds on
sale in every town he visited_.

"That killing song-birds for food," continues Dr. Bishop, "is not
confined to the poor Italians I learned on October 27, when one of the
most prominent and wealthy Italian _ornithologists_--a delightful
man--told me he had shot 180 skylarks and pipits the day before, and
that his family liked them far better than other game. Our prejudice
against selling game does not exist in Europe, and this same
ornithologist told me he often shot 200 ducks in a day at his
shooting-box, sending to the market what he could not use himself. On
November 1, 1910, he shot 82 ducks, and on November 8, 103, chiefly
widgeon and teal."

An "ornithologist" indeed! A "sportsman" also, is he not? He belongs
with his brother "ornithologists" of the roccolos, who net their "game"
with the aid of _blind_ birds! Brave men, gallant "sportsmen," are these
men of Italy,--and western France also if the tale is true!

If the people of Europe can stand the wholesale, systematic slaughter of
their song and insectivorous birds, _we can_! If they are too
mean-spirited to rise up, make a row about it, and stop it, then let
them pay the price; but, by the Eternal, Antonio shall not come to this
country with the song-bird tastes of the roccolo and indulge them here!

The above facts have been cited, not at all for the benefit of Europe,
but for our own good. The American People are now confronted by the
Italian and Austrian and Hungarian laborer and saloon-keeper and
mechanic, and all Americans should have an exact measure of the
sentiments of southern Europe toward our wild life generally, especially
the birds that we do not shoot at all, _and therefore are easy to kill_.

When a warden or a citizen arrests an alien for killing any of our
non-game birds, show the judge these records of how they do things in
Italy, and ask for the extreme penalty.

I have taken pains to publish