I02 



Bird - Lore 



an elderly person sharing the home with 

 his family could not sleep at reasonable 

 hours on account of Sparrow chatter was 

 an element in the decision to which he 

 soon came. For into his hands fell an 

 advertisement of a Sparrow trap, just 

 such a two-funnel wire affair as was 

 described and recommended as early as 

 1912 by the Department of Agriculture in 

 Farmers' Bulletin 493. On May 20, 1915, 

 the trap arrived, and was duly installed 

 and baited. It was at first placed on the 

 ground in the small chicken-yard at the 

 rear of the house, and the outer funnel was 

 baited with a small amount of cracked 

 grain, the finer "chick-feed" proving to 

 be most efficacious. The location of the 

 trap was changed at different times dur- 

 ing the spring, summer, and fall, and the 

 total results on the Sparrow population 

 were satisfactory beyond expectations. 



By June 11, only twenty-two days after 

 the trap was set out, 78 Sparrows had 

 passed the fatal inner funnel of that sim- 

 ple contrivance, and at this, fortunately 

 for the accurate details of the present 

 account, my neighbor's interest was 

 aroused to know precisely what the powers 

 of his most recent purchase might really 

 be. With a pencil he marked thereafter on 

 the siding of his hen-house the mortuary 

 record: 6/13 — 84, 6/17 — 100, 7/9 — 202, 

 and so forth. That is to say, a total of 202 

 birds had been gathered in by July 9, 

 fifty days after the trap was put into 

 action, or an average of a little more than 

 four per day. This rate of destruction was 

 much increased during the following 

 month, the 300 mark being passed on July 

 27, and the 400 mark on August 11. The 

 rate of capture then declined, and it was 

 not until September 18 that the figure 508 

 was registered. The trap remained set 

 until December 5, at which time the 

 deadly record stood at 597. A few dozens 

 more had entered the trap but escaped 

 through the insufficient latching of the 

 "clean-out" door. After December 5 

 heavy snows fell, followed by sleet storms, 

 and my neighbor temporarily placed his 

 trap out of service on a back porch. 



A few facts in connection with the above 



record will prove of interest. The heaviest 

 catches were made when the currants 

 became very ripe and the trap was placed 

 under the laden bushes. Fewest Sparrows 

 were caught when the sweet corn in the 

 garden was in the milk stage, the birds 

 preferring the contents of the juicy kernels 

 to the dry grain with which the trap was 

 baited. The largest catch on any one day 

 was 20 birds, this number being reached 

 on two different dates, June 27 and 

 August 4. The Sparrows seemed to 

 arrive in flocks of greater or less size, and 

 the record would mount rapidly until these 

 were gathered in. Then, for several days 

 possibly, no birds at all would be trapped. 

 And the fine feature of the entire season's 

 experience was that this trap caught 

 English Sparrows and no other bird what- 

 soever. The only exception to English 

 Sparrows was a single hoary old house rat 

 that had evidently followed a Sparrow in; 

 at any rate, the latter was found partially 

 devoured. 



Relief from the Sparrow nuisance began 

 to come to our neighborhood about the 

 middle of August, after full 400 of the 

 noisy chatterers had fallen victim to the 

 innocent-looking wire cage. And by the 

 time the Indian summer days of October 

 came, the English Sparrow tribe in our 

 part of town had dropped from the status 

 of "abundant" to only "fairly common." 

 Indeed, I have not seen more than six 

 individuals together in our end of the 

 little city at any time in the last three 

 months. 



Is it possible that my neighbor's experi- 

 ence was out of the ordinary? I do not 

 see why it should be, but I have found a 

 similar record only in the above-mentioned 

 Farmers' Bulletin, where the capture of 

 300 Sparrows in six weeks in the Missouri 

 Botanical Gardens, St. Louis, is noted. If 

 it is at all typical of what may be accom- 

 plished, then one or two things seem clear. 

 An easy method is at hand for holding in 

 check the Sparrow nuisance and more 

 attention should be given to Farmers' 

 Bulletin 493 than seems thus far to have 

 been accorded this worthy publication. — 

 Charles R. Keyes, Mt. Vernon, Iowa. 



