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: 



" I 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 



