BIRD-BOXES.
To THE EDITOR OF THE SPEOTATOR,"j SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. T. E. Eccles, deplores the fact that in different parts of the Continent so much more atten- tion is given to this subject than with us, and he mentions the nesting-jars fixed against the sides of the Val d'Aosta houses as "a home for birds." I have seen them, too. Some quarter of a century ago I was on a diligence somewhere in France, and I remarked on them to a fellow-traveller—a Frenchman—beside me. I did not recognize the object of the jars and asked for enlightenment. " For the birds," he said. " To breed in P " I asked. " Roost in or breed in," he replied. " We mount a ladder at night and catch them and wring their necks." "But why P" I exclaimed. "Parbleu," said he, "ils mangent lee raisins !" And when I came to think of it, the only birds one ever sees in a vine district are magpies—lots of them—and crows, which neither mangent lea raisins nor are themselves "mangeable."
About the same period I was at Taormina, and, struck by the absence of dogs—no great loss, judging by the Italian standard of bow-wow—I asked my friendly landlord the reason. " Dogs No! " said he. " We shoot the dogs !" " Good gracious ! What for ? " I asked. "Parbleu," he said, " ils mangent les raisins !" This fact, though shocking, was interesting as throwing an explanation on 2Esop's fable of " The Fox and the Grapes," which had till then always been something of a stumbling-block to me, though I once made the acquaintance of a cock in Spain—a handsome but greedy bird—which would catch a large grape thrown to him and swallow it whole with every manifestation of appreciation. No doubt the bird-jars are at Val d'Aosta right enough, but whether their object is purely philanthropic or " philornithic " &erne to me less certain, especially when one recalls the heaps of tiny little feathered creatures lying in all their dead glory for sale on Italian food-stalls. Still, your corre- spondent may be right—it is good to think so. For myself, however, I confess that my mental attitude towards his explanation is that of on ancient worthy thus expressed : " I don't mind believing it myself, but there's a good many as
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