LOST SWALLOWS.
KILLED IN THOUSANDS
Austrian and Hungarian farmers and estate owners are seriously perturbed over the non-arrival of the swallows, which have rapidly diminished in numbers during the last few years (says the. Budapest correspondent of the London Observer).
, One estate-owner reports that out of 270 swallow families to leave his estate last autumn only two have returned. In Hungary swallows are reverenced as harbingers of prosperity and happiness, and every effort is made to encourage them to nest in stables and barns.
The enigma has just been solved by the Ornithological Society, which reports its discovery that swallows are killed in great numbers off the southern coast of Europe, and sold to factories, where they are turned into preserves. In the month of March it is stated, a fleet of boats puts out to sea fitted with long poles carrying electric wires. Swallows flying over from Africa habitually rest on passing ships. When they perch on these poles in sufficient numbers the electric current is turned on, and they fall dead on the deck, where they are gathered up by the crew.
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3698, 1 October 1927, Page 4
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184LOST SWALLOWS. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3698, 1 October 1927, Page 4
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