STRANGE BIRDS AND SWALLOWS.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."' SIR,—In reply to your correspondent's inquiry as to what the Italians do with the swallows they destroy, I can answer at once. They eat them. Spitted on wooden skewers, one sees them mixed with other migratory birds in the shops of any Northern Italian town exposed for sale. They are caught on the frontier passes entering into the Tyrol. Once in the Tyrol they are welcomed and safe, and are permitted to build even inside the peasants' houses, a hole being made in the door for free ingress and egress at all times. There-is no homelier sight, in my opinion, than to see the peasant sitting on his stoep, smoking his pipe, with his old Frau beside him, and the swallows fearlessly flitting in and out only a foot or two above him. I feel convinced, however, that the great scarcity of the swallow tribe is almost entirely duo to climatic causes; the loss due to Italian action would only be a fractional
part of those destroyed.—I am, Sir, &c., A. G. ZABEU,.
Kendrick, Reading.
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