THE ENGLISH SPARROW QUESTION 75 
I suggest the following means for controlling them:— 
1. We must keep our streets, back yards, and farm- 
yards as free as possible from waste grain and offal. 
2. Do not allow them to nest on your premises. 
3. Do not allow them to roost. In warm weather 
they roost on trees, often in large numbers. In cold 
weather they seek more sheltered places, retiring about 
half an hour before sunset. Catch them, shoot them, 
turn the hose on them, or simply drive them away, and 
they will soon desert your premises. A small flock 
that roosted on my trees left for good after they had 
been disturbed three or four times. 
I think, however, that all the means thus far men- 
tioned will prove makeshifts not permanently producing 
the desired result. ‘The only really successful method 
of fighting the sparrow pest is outlined in the following 
communication, which Mr. Frank Bond, editor of the 
Wyoming Tribune, Cheyenne, Wyo. has kindly placed 
at my disposal. He writes as follows: — 
“ J think it was in the autumn of 1889 that some of 
our trap shooters imported a quantity of the birds to 
shoot from traps, and, of course, a number escaped. 
These furnished the stock for future multitudes. For 
a year very few of the sparrows were seen, but as they 
multiplied and became bolder with numbers, they soon 
attracted my attention. I began shooting and poison- 
ing them, getting permission from the city government 
to pursue the work in whatever way I thought desirable. 
Carrying on a regular campaign, I have succeeded in 
keeping their numbers so reduced that they have not 
