BIRD ENEMIES INTRODUCED BY MAN 155 



birds have shown that flocks and individuals have 

 a very narrow range, and confine their activities 

 largely to one locality, so that when a place has 

 once been freed of sparrows, some time passes be- 

 fore others come in. The following illustration of 

 this is given in the Farmers' Bulletin No. 493, " The 

 English Sparrow as a Pest ": — 



This tendency to remain on a special territory was 

 well shown during a recent experiment with a flock in a 

 small garden. During the fall steady trapping reduced 

 the resident flock in the garden to a dozen individuals, 

 274 birds having been trapped. The survivors were 

 poisoned. Though another flock lived in the street just 

 beyond the fence, the garden was sparrow-free for three 

 months. In the following spring a few sparrows ap- 

 peared, but were soon trapped. After this the garden con- 

 tinued throughout the summer without a resident flock, 

 and only rarely was it visited by sparrows from other 

 parts of the neighborhood. 



Shooting the sparrows. There are a number of 

 reports available which show that the sparrow can 

 be controlled by systematic shooting. Mr. Newton 

 Miller reports in "Bird-Lore" that for twenty-five 

 years on his father's farm the sparrows were almost 

 completely kept under control by shooting. Each 

 spring from two to five pairs of sparrows came look- 

 ing for nesting-sites, but when these were shot, the 

 farm remained practically free from the pest for the 

 rest of the year. 



Mr. E. H. Baynes reports from Meriden, New 



