206 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 89 



DISCOURAGING THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



BY THOMAS H. WHITNEY. 



For nearly two years I have spent a good deal of leisure 

 time on the almost hopeless task of ridding my home grounds 

 of the English sparrow. Having tried nearly all the methods 

 I could think of or read about that promised any practical 

 results, in the hope my experience may be of some little value 

 to others, I venture to describe it briefly. 



The sparrow problem naturally divides itself into three 

 parts : Destruction, Prevention of Increase, Protecting Food 

 Supplied to Native Birds. 



DESTRUCTION. 



In the twenty months elapsed since I began work, I have 

 killed 216 sparrows. Not a very large number, but ours is a 

 small inland city which does not harbor any big flocks in the 

 upper residence districts, the sparrows being rather evenly dis- 

 tributed a few to a place, as nesting and roosting are con- 

 venient. Those formerly resident in our grounds have long 

 since been killed, and the great majority of those destroyed 

 were new-comers in search of food or un-preempted home- 

 sites. The total number killed is divided as follows : 



Poisoned by strychnine-coated wheat 13 



Shot with air-rifle 10 



Shot with .22 cal. rifle 31 



Caught in wire funnel trap 13 



Caught in nest box trap 137 



Total 216 



There are practical difficulties in the use of poison, the prin- 

 cipal one that of limiting the poisoned bait to sparrows only. 

 I have a fresh supply of poisoned wheat made up for use this 

 winter, but juncoes linger, and would probably be killed with 

 the sparrows. Better a whole flock of sparrows than the un- 

 necessary death of one native bird. 



It is only occasionally that a bird can be killed or even in- 



