240 Wild Bird Guests 



acres, clear of red squirrels, house cats, and 

 European sparrows ; reduced the chipmunk pop- 

 ulation as much as seemed necessary, and who 

 has shot several sharp-shinned and Cooper's 

 hawks and two northern shrikes. The same 

 man has shot practically all the red squirrels 

 in the nearby village of Meriden, and with the 

 help of one other man has cleared the village 

 of European sparrows. Most of the latter were 

 shot, but a few were caught in a sparrow trap. 

 Both of these men lead very busy lives — one is a 

 doctor, the other a writer — but by carrying their 

 guns occasionally while going about their work, 

 they have been able to free the local birds of 

 nearly all their natural foes. 



It has been the experience of men who have 

 made determined effort to rid a given place of 

 such bird enemies, that the task becomes in- 

 creasingly easy. In Meriden, for example, about 

 two hundred red squirrels were shot the first year, 

 perhaps fifty the second, and now the shooting 

 of half a dozen squirrels a year is all that is 

 necessary, in spite of the fact that the village is 

 full of trees and is surrounded by woodland. 



European Sparrows 



It was the same with the sparrow problem. 

 At first Meriden was like any other sparrow- 



