he
Pantheon--the extent of traffic in which may be judged from the statement,
that during the spring and autumn passage of the quails, which are taken
in nets of prodigious extent on the shores of the Mediterranean, 17,000 of
these birds have passed the Roman custom-house in one day. The catalogue
of birds exposed for sale as articles of food comprehends nearly all the
species found in Italy: not even robin-redbreast is sacred from the
omnivorous maw of the Italian gourmand, and a hundred at a time may be
seen lying on a stall. "The birdmen outwardly had the appearance of
banditti, but it as all outside, and nothing more: they were good men
notwithstanding their uncouth looks, and good Christians too, for I could
see them waiting at the door of the Jesuits' church by half-past four on a
winter's morning, to be ready for the first mass." By ingratiating himself
with this rough-seeming fraternity, Mr Waterton succeeded in obtaining
specimens of many rare birds, which fortunately escaped the wreck of the
Pollux, by having been previously forwarded to Leghorn. Among these
scattered ornithological notices, we find some interesting remarks on the
true designation of the "sparrow sitting alone upon the house-top," to
which the Royal Psalmist likened himself in his penitence and vigils. It
is obvious that the description could not apply to our common house
sparrow, the habits of which are certainly the reverse of solitary or
pensive; and Mr Waterton is undoubtedly correct in referring it to the
Blue or Solitary Thrush--a bird not found in this country, but common in
Spain, Italy, and the south of France, and still more so in the
Levant--the _Petrocincla cyanea_ of scientific naturalists, and the
_Passera solitaria_ of the Italians. "It is a real thrush in size, in
shape, in habits, and in song--and is indeed a solitary bird, for it never
associates with any other, and only with its own mate in breeding
time--and even then it is often seen quite alone upon the house-top, where
it warbles in sweet and plaintive strains, and continues its song as it
moves in easy flight from roof to roof. The traveller may often see it on
the remains of the Temple of Peace, but much more frequently on the
stupendous ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, and always on the Colosseum:
and, in fine, on the tops of most of the churches, monasteries, and
convents, within and without the walls of the Eternal City. It being an
assiduous frequenter of the habitat