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Show MURDERERS AMONG BIRDS. Young Ones Confined in Cage Are Poisoned by the Male Parent. A gentleman who travels much In Central America tolls tin Interesting story nbout his cxnerlcnco with tropical trop-ical birds. To put It In his own words, ho says! "In cleaning up tho site to build the railroad station nt foonsonnto In the republic of El Salva dor, I left standing a treo called tho tcmplsqtte, which was, and Is still, tho favorite nesting plnce for Bcvcral kinds of birds. With the aid of a fodder fod-der one day I secured from tho nest some young slnsontcs (mockingbirds.) fearing that 1 could not secure tho right kind of food for them, I mado a rough cnge ond put them In It. I placed It where tho parents of tho little captives could take caro of their young ones, which they soon did with all the solicitude I expected. "Excepting tho shelter of tho wings of their progenitors, nnd liberty t3 fly freely In tho air, I think they enjoyed en-joyed ovcry inducement to grow strong and be happy In their comfortablo prison. Perhaps the Impossibility of getting Into tho cage made the parent birds moro affect lonato and assiduous In their visits. When the breeding time arrived, I watched tho expectant mother birds gathorlng feathers, moss and other material with which to build their nests. Ono of my peons remarked 'Boss, you better bid adieu to your chicks; their daddies aro going to get them poison frum tho brush.' His remarks re-marks mado mo think of what I had read In natural history at school, that when tho African swallow emigrates to Europe the invalids and tho very young birds which cannot accompany them arc poisoned. Still I did not be-llcvo be-llcvo that tho parents of my young slnsontcs sln-sontcs could be bo cruel or so wlso as to kill my birdies. Yet, a few days after, I had tho sorrow to And one of my mocking birds stono dead. I took it out and dissected it, hoping to ascertain as-certain tho nnturo of tho poison. I feared that tho peon might bo playing a Joko on me. I had to abandon tho Idea when I found In tho poor bird's stomach, among other things, a plcco of undigested and swollen pink butterfly. but-terfly. All tho rest of my prisoners died ono after the other, and in tho stomach of each I found remains of tho swollen pink butterfly. Then I instructed my peons to catch some butterflies, but-terflies, which I fed to the wild mocking mock-ing birds, and had occasion to observe ob-serve thnt they ate them all except tho pink ones. These birds wero freo and wild ones and had an Instinctive dls- |