THOSE MOCKING-BIRDS AGAIN.
Travis County, Texas.
Dear Jack: I have been long acquainted with you and St. Nicholas. I live about two miles from Austin, the capital city of Texas. Birds of all kinds found in Texas may be seen about the place at proper seasons. Mocking-birds build their nests in the trees within a few yards, or steps, of the house. Last July, two young mocking-birds were taken from a nest of five. The two young mocking-birds taken from the nest were placed carefully in a large-sized cage, and the cage was suspended from a hook at the side of the front hall-door. The young birds were constantly and regularly fed for two weeks, night and morning, by both parent-birds, who hovered about the young ones during the day singing and frisking, and upon numerous occasions fighting off objectionable intruders and making great fluttering and noisy remonstrance when cats, dogs, or chickens appeared beneath the cage.
At the end of two weeks, the young mocking-birds then being about able to fly, the cage was taken inside the hall-way, and there hung, covered with a mosquito-bar, to protect the little prisoners from stinging insects.
In the hall-way, the old birds could not reach the young to feed them, but they would fly in and through the house; this they did for several days, and then, apparently, they abandoned our locality and their young altogether. As we thought the old birds would not return, we again placed the cage outside the house, in its first position, but on one occasion we failed to entirely cover the cage with the mosquito-bar; and that very evening, at the usual feeding-time, about dusk, both old birds were seen, for the first time since their departure. Each bird had food or poison in its beak, and each was seen feeding it to the young birds; and then they flew away and did not return. Not suspecting any danger to the young birds, we allowed the cage to remain in the same place all night.
Next morning early, we found one young bird dead in the cage, and the other barely alive, reeling and dazed as if under the influence of a poisonous weed or narcotic. Within a few hours, it too was dead. I am sorry that I lost two very beautiful birds; and I think the parent-birds poisoned the young captives, as the old birds were not seen by us again. Shall not the verdict be "guilty" instead of "not guilty"? Decide the question, Dear Jack.
Yours truly, Louise A——.
No, thank you! You can't persuade me to be the judge in such a case. For if I should undertake to decide the question of guilt, I'd be sure to point out the fact that in every instance the poisoned birds were in cages, not in nests. And then you wise human folk would be sure to say that that wasn't a fair way of stating the case, or that I was prejudiced. And perhaps I am. I'm neither a bird nor a human being, you see; I'm only Jack-in-the-Pulpit. So settle this matter for yourselves.