132 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



courage such birds in their attempts to nest on or about the premises. A 

 little watchfulness will enable you to discover the nests before they are 

 completed, and they can be knocked down then; and after one or two 

 such hints the birds will go somewhere else to nest. This sounds cruel, 

 but in reality is far less so than the common practice of shooting parent 

 birds on or about your fruit trees, thus leaving the unknown 3'oung to 

 perish miserably of starvation. That the law forbids nest destruction 

 is only a present obstacle. You can make the laws give you your rights, 

 and you certainly should see to it that you are able lawfully to protect 

 your crops from birds or other animals. 



(7) Use the gun only as a last resort, and even then it will pay you to 

 use blank charges. AVith the excex)tion of the cedar-bird, you would sel- 

 dom be .able to kill more than one bird at a time, and each charge of shot 

 would damage fruit and branch more than the value of the bird killed. 

 The blank charge will carry just as much terror, and save the tree and the 

 birds as well. 



English sparrows, being present all winter, and thus "open to treat- 

 ment" when most of our valuable birds are away, may be poisoned with 

 perfect safety, and with absolute certainty. But this should only be 

 attempted by those who can be trusted to follow instructions implicitly, 

 and to handle the poisoned grain with good judgment. Directions for 

 such work will be given to any one interested on application. 



Finally, in any attempt to protect ripening fruit or other crops from 

 the attacks of birds, remember that it is very important to prevent the 

 birds from getting a taste at first. Once they begin upon a tree of ripen- 

 ing cherries, the difficulty of keeping them awaj'^ is increased ten-fold. 



DISCUSSION. 



Q. What about arsenic? 



A. Arsenic will work within twenty-four hours, but meanwhile the 

 bird has a chance to go anywhere, and there is of course a possibility 

 that the birds may reach the roofs or get into the gutters or cistern pipes 

 and make trouble, but with a little care that thing can be obviated, and 

 strychnine is better. 



Q. You say it takes thirty minutes for strychnine to act? 



A. It may kill them in ten or even three or four minutes. It 

 depends largely on conditions we don't know much about. If the stom- 

 ach is full, and he only got a grain or two, it may be some tim.e. It is 

 often when he feels the first twinge that he will fly, and having eaten 

 only a few grains, it will take some time. This thing has been tried, and 

 we know how it works, from experiments with birds in cages. Asa rule 

 it acts promptly and very quickly, and there is this that I would like to 

 sayin defense of the method: It does not seem to be painful to the birds. I 

 don't believe death by strichnine is painful to the sparrow. In very 

 many cases, in fact it is the rule in poisoning with strichnine, when a 

 poison begins to take effect the bird has a convulsion; it flutters and 

 stiffens and falls down. After a few minutes it recovers, sits up, and 

 blinks as though ashamed of itself, and begins to eat. Then another 

 spasm comes on, and the second or third spasm is fatal, but in the inter- 

 vals the bird goes to eating. I can not imagine that a bird suffering any 



