text:  At Genoa an inclination was manifested by the custom-house officers to claim duty on this novel article of export--and a precedent might have been drawn from the case of the eagles which were sent from Killarney to Colonel Montagu before the duties between England and Ireland were abolished and detained at Bristol on the plea that there was a duty on all singing-birds! The Genoese _doganieri_ however on Mr Waterton's assurance that the owls were not for the purposes of traffic and were moreover the native produce of _la bellissima Italia_ (with the sly addition that he "had reason to believe they are common in Genoa so that they can well be spared ") graciously allowed them to pass duty-free; but at Basle an unexpected obstacle arose