South will be considered in the next chapter. In Italy, linnets and
sparrows are "game"; and so is everything else that wears feathers!
Italy is a continuous slaughtering-ground for the migratory birds of
Europe, and as such it is an international nuisance and a pest. The way
passerine birds are killed and eaten in that country is a disgrace to
the government of Italy, and a standing reproach to the throne. Even
kings and parliaments have no right in moral or international law to
permit year after year the wholesale slaughter of birds of passage of
species that no civilized man has a right to kill.

There are some tales of slaughter from which every properly-balanced
Christian mind is bound to recoil with horror. One such tale has
recently been given to us in the pages of the _Avicultural Magazine_, of
London, for January, 1912, by Mr. Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S., whose word
no man will dispute. In condensing it, let us call it

* * * * *

THE ITALIAN SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS

This story does not concern game birds of any kind. Quite the contrary.
That it should be published in America, a land now rapidly filling up
with Italians, is a painful necessity in order that the people of
America may be enabled accurately to measure the fatherland traditions
and the fixed mental attitude of Italians generally toward our song
birds. I shall now hold a mirror up to Italian nature. If the image is
either hideous or grotesque, the fault will not be mine. I specially
commend the picture to the notice of American game wardens and judges on
the bench.