DISAPPEARING BIRDS. rQI 



In time these faithful ones died, too, and the Mayan na- 

 tion and the Mayan faith passed away. The Aztecs came, 

 with their new ways and new religion, and grew and built 

 a nation. 



The ruins of the Mayan cities and temples have been 

 to some extent explored. Mau}^ inscriptions have been 

 found, some evidently of considerable length. Casts of 

 these have been placed in many of the great museums, but 

 no one is able to read them. It is as if the printed story 

 of a people were spread out before the blind. 



Of the beautiful trogon of the Cordilleras, a recent writer 

 has said . " The Mayan nation had, been so long forgot- 

 ten that no man could tell aught of them except dim sto- 

 ries half remembered. The Aztec nation became very, 

 very old, and then it, in turn, passed before the white man 

 from Spain. Through all the ages one creature has re- 

 mained unchanged and beautiful and ever free. It is the 

 quezal. And it still flies in its ancient splendor through 

 the lost land of long dead nations in Central America." 



Disappearing Birds. 



Young birds have to be taught a great many things, but there 

 are some feats which they know without instruction. In a large 

 open air cage in the New York Zoological Park is a covey of six Cal- 

 ifornia partridges, about one-third grown, and their little bantam 

 stepmother. She dozes at one end of the range or walks slowly 

 about, pecking among the blades of grass. The small sextet keep 

 close together, and if we watch them for several minutes, we will 

 see some of the things which must have come to them as their 

 feathers and little bills came — from the egg. Unlike the hen, they 

 are suspicious of your every movement, but in a short time they 

 forget that you are not a lifeless tree trunk or other harmless ob- 

 ject near their cage. They select a sunny spot, always on the dead 

 leaves, never on the green grass, and here, after much cuddling 

 and pushing, bvit never a peep, they squat, usually in an irregular 

 circle with heads outward. Unless there are dead leaves or some 



