Bathgate. — The Sparrotv Plague and its Remedy. 73 



indistinguishable from those of the destructive sparrow or 

 equally obnoxious green linnet {Chlorospiza chloris), so that 

 the destruction of beneficial and liarmless birds is encouraged 

 and rewarded. 



Our County Councils have chiefly adopted this method of 

 fighting the pest, and many of them have encouraged in 

 divers ways the killing of sparrows and green linnets by 

 poison, but beyond this and the placing on the statute-book 

 of an Act or two no systematic attempt has been made to 

 combat the evil. I shall therefore proceed to show you what 

 appears to me a more excellent way. 



The means the adoption of which I advocate are of two 

 distinct kinds, systematic trapping and the introduction of 

 the natural enemies. It is well known that expert English 

 bird-catchers can capture unlimited quantities of birds of 

 almost any variety. To such an extent has the catching of 

 birds been carried in the Old Country that the Legislature 

 has been compelled to pass a Wild Birds Protection Act. 

 These bird-catchers devote their energies chiefly to the taking 

 of song-birds, and some idea of the extent of the trade may 

 be gathered from the following extract from the Illustrated 

 London Neios of the 10th January last, when it is recorded 

 that "in a recent London County Court case the defendant 

 stated that he generally bought a hundred dozen linnets, 

 skylarks, and other British song-birds a week. For hnnets 

 he paid £2 for ten dozen." If there was any market for 

 sparrows I am sure that the price would be very much lower. 

 I therefore suggest that each County Council should be com- 

 pelled by law to employ at least one expert bird-catcher, 

 who would be instructed to devote his attentions to sparrows 

 and green linnets only, with perhaps an occasional raid on 

 the blackbirds, and that they should have power to levy on 

 all municipalities within or on their borders a proportion of 

 the cost of their operations. This, I am certain, would be 

 cheaper and much more efficacious than the bounty system. 



My suggestion that the municipalities should contribute to 

 the cost is because the towns are the nurseries in which the 

 sparrows to a large extent multiply. This fact is noted in the 

 American pamphlet, and not long ago I had local confirmatory 

 evidence on the point. A gentleman residing in a subutb of 

 Duuedin had acquired the habit of every morning throwing 

 some pieces of bread to the sparrows, and deriving amuse- 

 ment from their antics in squabbling over the spoil. He con- 

 tinued the practice for some months, but one fine morning no 

 sparrows came, nor when he returned from business in the 

 evening was the bread gone. For some weeks he observed 

 few, if any, sparrows ; but after a time they returned, and he 

 resumed his habit of feeding them, and continued it thi'ough- 



