No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 389 



pondents inform us that they had succeeded in poisoning them by 

 soaL:ing grains or seeds of millet or other hue seeds in a solution 

 of strychnine, then drying them and mixing one part of this pois- 

 oned millet seed with ten parts of unpoisoned seeds of the same 

 kind, and putting them on a roof where the sparrows would find 

 them and eat them, but where the poultry would not be poisoned. 

 Results' were that the sparrows ate the small poisoned seeds readily 

 and were killed in great numbers. 



Another correspondent recommends a kind of trap, which he has 

 found successful,, and which consists of a wire covered box with a 

 tunnel-like boarded entrance leading thereto. We have never 

 known traps to be very efificieut when used against this bird, as it 

 is too wary to be caught where it has seen its companions cap- 

 tured or injured. 



The solution of the English Sparrow problem may in part be 

 found in educating our people to the realization that the English 

 Sparrow is as good food for the table as the Reed Bird, or any other 

 small bird. In fact, it is possible that many birds offered as Reed 

 Birds in restaurants and hotels are English Sparrows, but the use 

 of these birds for food has noi oecome sufficiently extensive. Ex- 

 cellent suggestions in this regard are made by Rev. Charles Dadant 

 and Son in their Fifth Edition of "Langstroth on the Hive and 

 Honey-Bee" as follows: 



"The bee-keepers of England complain of the sparrows, which 

 they accuse of eating bees. If these birds add this mischief to so 

 many others of which they are guilty, the bee-keepers should find 

 some means of getting rid of them. In the Vosges (France) most 

 of the farmers suspend earthen pots to the walls of their barns in 

 which the sparrows make their nests. These jug-shaped pots are 

 examined every week and the young birds are killed as soon as they 

 are ready to fly out, and are put into the frying pan. We have 

 seen as many as five or six dozen pots on the same wall, nearly all 

 filled with nests, for sparrows raise many broods every year. 



''In Italy the consumption of these birds is carried on, on a large 

 scale. Not only are the churches riddled with thousands of holes, 

 in which the sparrows make their nests, but there are at the road 

 crossings, high square towers, which are built for this purpose. 

 An overseer has them locked; he climbs inside and clips the wings 

 of the young, to compel them to stay until they are full grown. 



''During the Franco-Italian war against Austria, the French 

 soldiers bought the young sparrows, which they found delicious 

 eating. If the sparrows destroy our bees, can we not destroy them? 

 It is better to eat than to be eaten! 



"If — as in the olden time of fables — birds could be moved by 

 human language, it would bo worth while to post up, in the vicin- 

 ity of our Apiaries, the old Greek poet's address to the swallow: 



"Attic maiden, honey fad, 



Chirping warbler bears't away 

 Thou the busy buzzing bee, 

 , To thy callow brood a prey? 



Warbler, thou a warbler sieze? 



Winged, one with lovely wings? 

 Guest thyself, by summer brought, 



Tellow guests whom summer brings? 

 Wilt not quickly let it drop? 



'Tis not fair; indeed, 'tis wrong. 

 That the ceaseless warbler should 



Die by mouth of ceaseless song." 



