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Show BIRD IMPORTER 4 FIGHTS SHIP RATS I'HILADKLI'HIA. Jan. 2S. Two thousand canary birds, butlfinct.es and gnldfinchea were brought tu this city today In the hold f the steamship i Ktrlew aftr th.vr owner battli-d! night and day with great hordes of i rata to save his valuable consignment. ; It Is the first lot of canaries Imported 1 into this country since before tha ! war. A description of the fight to aara the Mrda was given by Frank Yahla. the bird fancier, who brought them over with him. The rats made my life Intolerable," said ha this morn In a 1 killed twenty with my own hands and destroyed fifty or more with poison. They killed tn all between 120 and 1C0 of the birds," Mr. Vahla was In a highly nervous and exhauated condition aa the result f hla night vigils during the twenty-one twenty-one days the ship was on the way here from Hamburg. The Kor!ew,farHed carvo of grain on the voyage over and brought back aeneral mem-handls. For this reason the rats which hsd been drawn to the vessel because of the grain were fa-Fnrreiei |