136 Occusiottal yotes. 



District a number of farniers have given up sowing grain- 

 crops owing to the destructiveness of feathered thieves. It 

 is a serious matter, and I should like to draw the attention of 

 the Union to it in the hope of someone being able to suggest 

 a remedy." 



We addressed a letter on the matter to the Government 

 Botanist of the Transvaal Agricultural Department, Mr. J. 

 Burtt-Davy, F.L.S., who in reply states : — 



"Transvaal Department of Agriculture, 



" Pretoria, 16th August, 1906. 



" Answering your enquiry I may say that at Skinner's 

 Court Experimental Station and the Potchefstroom Experi- 

 mental Farm we have had the greatest trouble in growing 

 certain small grains for seed, particularly Pen?iis^iu/u spicatum, 

 Setaria italica, wheat, Kafir corn, and millets. : 



" Several small birds seem to be responsible, and they come 

 in flocks. So far I have found no practicable remedy for 

 this kind of thing : we catch a few in trap cages, shoot a 

 few, and in serious cases keep a piccaninny ' tenting,' but the 

 two first-named do little good, and the third plan is expensive 

 and not thoroughly efficient. 



" Some are making false nests in the Casuarinas and almost 

 stripping them of leaves. 



" I might add that V. L. Robertson, of Rolfontein, Amers- 

 foort, says that Doves make it practically impossible to grow 

 peas there. Kafir Cranes are said to cause much loss of 

 mealie-plants in the Standerton District, pulling them out 

 along the rows as Rooks do wheat in England." 



The gist of this correspondence appeared in the ' Transvaal 

 Agricultural Journal ' for October 1906 (vide pp. 263 & 

 264). 



It is rather difficult to suggest any very practical remedy. 

 The trouble is common enough in other countries : in 

 England elaborate scarecrows, clacking mills driven by wind, 

 small boys with clappers, " sparrow-clubs," and poisoned 

 grain are all well-known methods in frequent use, although 

 the last is in England illegal. In great fields in the East, 



