246 Transactions. 



How TO Check the Small Birds. 



Some of the inquiries were directed towards ascertaining 

 what steps have been taken to keep the birds in check, and what 

 success has been achieved in that direction. The plan most 

 favoured is the laying of poisoned grain and the payment for 

 heads and eggs. This plan seems to have been fairly effective 

 when combined action is taken, but it has often failed where 

 there is lack of combination. The natural increase is checked 

 by this means, but there are few instances of any material dimi- 

 nution in numbers having been made. In the orchard in the 

 North Island the gun is used. At the bird sanctuary on Little 

 Barrier Island, the nests of blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows, and 

 finches are destroyed when opportunities occur, and it is thought 

 that this probably keeps the English birds in check on the island. 



In several districts heads and eggs are paid for, and poisoned 

 wheat is distributed free by local authorities. In other districts 

 netting is resorted to. Mr. J. Wolfe, a Lincoln (North Canter- 

 bury) farmer, states that the system of purchase has the desired 

 effect to a great extent. He also informed me that he was the 

 first to use strychnine poison in his district, having commenced 

 to do so twenty-six years ago, and he has been poisoning ever 

 since, with good results. 



A very miscellaneous lot of suggestions are offered as to the 

 best means of checking the nuisance. A gentleman in Temuka 

 has prepared a scheme providing for legislation to compel all 

 landowners to produce a certain number of sparrows during 

 the winter months. Several farmers suggest that long nets, 

 such as bird-catchers use, could be brought into requisition by 

 capable men with effect. The Government is recommended to 

 give a bonus for the production of a poison that will be readily 

 eaten by the birds, and one correspondent thinks that a bonus 

 should be given for the best trap. There is a strong feeling 

 in favour of the introduction of English owls and other 

 birds of prey, and the introduction of English bats, frogs, 

 and toads is also favoured. A practical observation is that 

 the towns ought to be compelled to do more than at present, 

 as they are breeding - places from which the birds swarm 

 into the country districts. Among the most novel suggei^tions 

 are the systematic employment of armies of small boys at nest- 

 ing, and the use of electric wires stretched round fields of crops, 

 the wires to be charged with electricity in order to give the birds 

 severe shocks. The most practical scheme, and the one that is 

 evidently more acceptable than any other,, is thorough and 

 sy.-itematic poisomng. The whole operation, it is urged, should 

 be controlled by the Agricultural Department, which should 



