PROTECTION FOR BIRDS IN ITALY
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] have been asked by a Circolo di Cullum at Brescia to call the attention of English bird-lovers to the prohibition which has come into force with the new Italian law, of all interference with nests, eggs and young birds. Infraction of the law by children makes the parents liable to severe penalties. People have been trying to control birds' nesting ever since the book of Deuteronomy, by which the taking of young birds is allowed (rather unwillingly it would seem), but never of the mother. I do not know, however, of anything so vigorous as the present Italian law. It is not perfect,
but it places in the hands of all a powerful means to prevent the extermination of birds such as (according to Mr. Horns- clay's excellent book, Our Vanishing Wild Life) is going on at a rapid rate in America. Everything is against birds nowadays, and wayside admonitions do but little good. The fear of having to pay some hundred lire will be much more use- ful. I hope that both in England and in Italy the new laws will result in " a new heaven and a new earth " fit for the ideals of W. Hudson—and of St. Francis !—I am, Sir, &c.,
EVELYN MARTINENGO CESARESCO.
Salo, Lago di Garda.
P.S.—Killing or taking any kind of swallow is now punish- able.
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