The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-25
MEXICAN PARROT CATCHERS
ASSORTED TROUBLEs FACED IN
 GETTING THE 70 UNG BIRDS.

Mexican Colorod Parrots and the
 African Grays-Jenlousy u Marked
 Trait of the Birds.
 The bird store was full of noise, of
 chirp and chatter and song, but above
 croaking and screeehing of the green
 and yellow parrots that rivalled even
 the canaries in number
 I've just bought a big consignment
 of parrots" said the proprietor of the
 shop. T don't know whether we can
 sell all of them. but the market has
 been and I got the birds so cheap that
 I can put a selling price on them"
 Where did you get them?" asked a | Sun reporter.
 "Oh they are Mexican parrots. You could tell that at glance if you knew
 few parrots of any other sort. The
 African grays are the finest variety in
 the market, but it isn't easy to get
 them.
 "A good African gray Is worth from
 S25 to $50 and more. There aren't many
 persons who want to pay that for &
 parrot, A Mexican yellow crown sells
 for from SIP to $20, and, after all, I
 don't know but that it is as desirable
 as it's swell cousin.
 ''The African bird is more intelligent,
 but it is slower about learning to speak,
 and it can't whistle like the Mexican parrot. There are good many kinds of parrots in Mexico. Some of them are very cheap, but the parrot catchers who supply the best trade don't often bother with them. It doesn't pay.
 "A very decent green parrot with a red crown comes up from Mexico, but ] seldom handle 1t, for it isn't to be compared to this green bird, with the yellow head and the red shoulder straps.
 There were 275 parrots in the lot from which I bought these and they represented about three months work for a professional parrot catcher. I suppose they were worth a possible s12 apiece to him, but out of that he had tp pay lol pNpiio, dclihCS iiio livng expenses, and transportation to New York, so there wasn't such q tre- mendous margin of profit left out of the $3,300.
 The profits ought to be big. I wouldn't go into the business if anyone would pay me q dollar a minute for 1t. The best parrot country is along La Cruz river, down In the province of Tamaulips. All kinds of tropical birds and beasts and reptiles are thicker down there than mosuitoes are in Jer- sey It's solid jungle and swamp. The traveller takes his choice of being eaten by red ants or bitten by deadly snakes, l or dying of fever. The parrot catcher [ adds a chance of being murdered by his poons.
 When he starts out on his haunt he [ buys five or six burros to take with him. Then he goes to some one of the | forlorn haciendas and buys five or six peons. You know a Mexican peon Is about last of creation. He's only | degree above a Digger Indian.
 He Is so shiftless and ignorant and mprovident that he always goes head ,ver heels into debt, and then he has to work the debt off, so he is practically a ' slave. The hacienda owner won't let 4 he peons go unless the parrot catcher pays what they owe. He pays 1t, for ,e has to have them. No other class ,f people would do his work. To all ntents and purposes, they are his 
 He starts into the jungle with them md there his troubles begin The dis comforts are tremendous. He has to ,eep an eye on the peons constantly. hey are absolutely without morals, will steal everything within sight, lie Ike troopers and murder at the drop f the hat.
 Its natural enough that the poor reatures are what they are. They've ever had chance, and they are treat Is d like brutes but parrot men have told I 1e that under present conditions 1t Is impossible to treat them In any other ( ,ay. They don't understand anything | xcept force and hard treatment and t hey can't be relied upon for mo- r lent.
 May is the nesting time for parrots, r rather it would be, if the birds had s ests. They don't, The female parrot f tvs her eggs in high notch of a tree, il nd the young are matched out in the .tter part of June, but the parrot atcher musn't take them until three V r four weeks later. They are not (. .rong enough to stand removal before ,em When the right time comes the unt begins. T "The old birds are very clever about n coping their young ones hidden, but il | feeding time In the early morning O nd late evening, there is a great cluck- c g chattering. The hunters listen for lat and when they hear 1t in tree ley know they have found what they F ant tl "The master sends one of the peons st D the tree. There is where any man we a Mexican peon would balk. The arrot catcher himself wouldn't, for V ny money, tackle that part of the job al he trees are infested by red Mexican tt It's, and they say there isn't anything -. Mexico that is a warmer proposition an the red ant. They move in solid battalions and ey eat everything In their path, 1hen peon starts up the tree the its attack him, and I've been told at it is nothing unusual for a poor If How to come tumbIng to the ground, Do ,wline and grooming and tearing at iel