Poisoned Young - A controversy has arisen on the subject
of birds poisoning theht young if threatened with captivity. The Duke of Bedford, that great authority, seems to be among those who consider the belief a mere superstition, as his letter to the Field indicates. My own disbelief was not a little weakened by one experience. Lord Northcliffe tried to naturalise the American robin (which is a thrush) and breed a number both in the wild and in captivity. Some young were put in cages, where they were fed by the thrushes and blackbirds that had hatched them out The local naturalist in charge prophesied with confidence that at a certain date, as the birds became able to fly, they would be poisoned, and his prophesy was exactly fulfilled. At any rate, the birds died, and -Eh man said that they had been given the hard tips of yew leaves. Th birds, and they were numerous, left in the wild flourished greatly, bu about this date clean vanished and no news of any of them was eve received. The urge to migrate took them to an unknown doom.
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