Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXVIII. The Bird Sanctuary
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repeat incessantly, automatically their
monotonous call. They cannot stop, they go on
calling out night and day till they die. Long before
science knew anything about the localization of
the various nerve-centres in the human brain,
the devil had revealed to his disciple man his
ghastly discovery that by stinging out the eyes of
a bird with a red-hot needle the bird would sing
automatically. It is an old story, it was already
known to the Greeks and the Romans, it is still
done to-day all along the Southern shores of
Spain, Italy[1] and Greece. Only a few birds in a
hundred survive the operation, still it is good
business, a blinded quail is worth twenty-five lire
in Capri to-day. During six weeks of the spring
and six weeks of the autumn, the whole slope of
Monte Barbarossa was covered with nets from
the ruined castle on the top down to the garden
wall of San Michele at the foot of the mountain.
It was considered the best caccia on the whole
island, as often as not over a thousand birds were
netted there in a single day. The mountain was
owned by a man from the mainland, an
ex-butcher, a famous specialist in the blinding of birds,
my only enemy in Anacapri except the doctor.
Ever since I had begun building San Michele
the war between him and me had been going on
incessantly. I had appealed to the Prefect of
Naples, I had appealed to the Government in
Rome, I had been told there was nothing to be
done, the mountain was his, the law was on his
side. I had obtained an audience from the
highest Lady in the land, she had smiled at me
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