Whitnev — Discouraging the English Sparrow 207 



jured with an air-rifle, irrespective of marksmanship, as the 

 shooting- quality of the ordinary air-gun is very unrehable. 



In my judgment the best gun for shooting sparrows in 

 towns is the .22 caHbre rifle, using shot cartridges, and to be 

 equipped with a silencer; it is then practically noiseless, and 

 almost certain to drop the bird if fired from a reasonable dis- 

 tance. When shot at irregularly and with this gun, sparrows 

 do not become especially "gun-shy," as they certainly will if 

 hunted in the ordinary way. Shooting', however, is usually 

 against the ordinances of towns and cities, and apt to be dan- 

 gerous, no matter how much care is 'exercised. Moreover, 

 little impression can be made in this particular way, on the 

 large numbers of sparrows always present in towns. 



The ordinary funnel wire trap such as advertised extensive- 

 ly of late by various bird supply houses, I have tried out thor- 

 oughly, and found wanting. It will catch a few birds the first 

 time or two of setting, — after that the sparrows will not en- 

 ter, no matter how carefully the bait is placed, and irrespec- 

 tive of moving the trap to different locations. Where locali- 

 ties are over-run with large flocks of sparrows, a funnel trap 

 will at first catch a g"Ood many, but the fact remains that they 

 will not enter it after a few days, and further setting is use- 

 less. 



It will be noted that more than 50% of the sparrows killed 

 have been caught in a nest box trap. This kind of trap is 

 fully described in the U. S. Farmer's Bulletin " The English 

 Sparrow as a Pest." All the time I have been trying to shoot, 

 poison, and trap sparrows by other means, this nest box trap 

 has been steadily reducing their numbers, in all sorts of weath- 

 er, and in all seasons of the year ; it makes no difference when 

 the bird arrives, the trap is ready and there is no escape. A 

 thousand nest box traps put in commission throughout the 

 country, would take their annual toll of tens of thousands of 

 sparrows, and if placed with discretion will catch few native 

 birds. 



Of all the methods I know, the nest box trap is by far the 

 best ; not only from the standpoint of actual results in my 



