52 THE FLYING FOX, ETC. 



The flying-foxes are becoming a perfect plague to fruit- 

 growers. Noise certainly frightens these and other wild creatures 

 of nature until they get used to the same. In Viwa, the extreme 

 western island of Fiji, the natives got rid of a camp of P. 

 Samoensis by following them up with incessant kerosine-tin 

 kettling. After repeated dislodgment they flew away in a body 

 to another island fifteen miles off, where they have since 

 remained. 



The wild pigs in Fiji are kept from the fruits and vegetables 

 by a weird noise. An empty kerosine tin, with a hole punched 

 in and the top taken off, is hung up and inverted, and dangled 

 by a string from a branch of a tree. Large stones are tied up 

 in a similar manner alongside. Whenever the wind blows the 

 bough shakes and such a meUe of noise is set up that all the pigs 

 scamper off' in terror. 



Some years ago I visited Marysville Falls in Victoria. I 

 could not discover a single insect within two hundred yards of 

 the Falls. It would appear from the above illustrations that 

 artificial noises produced and varied should assist the orchardist 

 to frighten away a part, if not all of the pests, from insects to 

 mammals and birds, which injure or prey on the fruit. 



Wire lines suspended round a tree, netting thrown over a 

 tree, and other adjuncts have been suggested for keeping off 

 flying-foxes from ripe fruit. These are troublesome, expensive, 

 and only partially protective. 



Poison has been used with advantage. Arsenic is the most 

 successful. Mixed with finely-powdered white sugar, it can be 

 inserted into fruits here and there while green, and just before 

 ripening. The wound and the foreign body hasten maturity, 

 and the foxes catch at the bait. After a few are destroyed, the 

 rest instinctively — as sparrows with poisoned wheat, rats with 

 baited traps, etc. — learn danger, and leave the orchard for 

 pastures new. It is urged that the foxes might cause mischief 

 by carrying such poisoned fruit to a distance. The danger 

 would be a minimum if green fruit were baited. Care could 

 also be exercised to have such fallers gathered early each 

 morning and burned. 



Chicken cholera microbe inoculation has been recommended. 

 This is but a dream. Nothmg is known scientifically of the 



