INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 143 



While it is apparently impossible to exterminate this bird, which 

 in many ways is a pest, many of us desire to know some merciful 

 way of lessening its numbers. Poisoned wheat, using arsenic in 

 place of strychnine, in order that the birds may not die by the food 

 and thus frighten away others, is used by some. This is open to 

 the objection of danger to poultry, and cats also may eat birds so 

 poisoned. A better way, practiced on some farms, is to feed wheat 

 for a number of days, in the barnyard, say, placing it in a straight 

 line, and one fine morning when the birds are feeding, rake the line 

 with a shot gun. This may sound very cruel to some of our humanita- 

 rians, and the Entomologist may be censured for giving such advice, 

 but death is not cruelty, and as this office is intended to relieve 

 farmers of the presence of troublesome pests, he makes the sug- 

 gestion without hesitation. We know of at least two instances of 

 the successful use of the following: Wheat was soaked twenty- 

 four hours in whisky, and while still moist was placed where the 

 sparrows could get at it, presumably mixed with a small amount of 

 other wheat not treated, and placed where fowls could not well 

 reach it. The result of this was intoxication, maudlin, I am told, 

 in which condition the birds could be readily picked up and dis- 

 posed of. One case has been called to my attention where this 

 failed, but it was on the farm of a prohibitionist where doubtless 

 the sparrows instinctively refused to touch the grain soaked in 

 spirit. There is some ground to believe, too, that the wheat in this 

 case was not treated with whisky, as the young man told me that 

 he thought it was whisky "but was not sure." 



A 22 caliber rifle is sometimes handy, and its skillful use will 

 keep them from forming the habit of roosting on cornices, etc. 

 The tearing down of their nests repeatedly will, after a time, dis- 

 courage the wovild-be housekeepers, though they persevere through 

 several buildings before they finally cease. 



We have seen English sparrows catching grasshoppers, and 

 know of other good work they do, but it is of such slight import 

 compared with the mischief caused by them, that a slight lessening 

 of their number will do no harm. 



