Problems Confronting Beginners 243 



bait a sparrow trap, and it should be kept baited 

 all the time. 



The following directions for poisoning sparrows 

 are given by Professor Clifton F. Hodge, based 

 on the results of his own careful and successful 

 experiments, and are the best I know of : 



" Dissolve one-eighth of an ounce of powdered 

 strychnine sulphate in one half pint of boiling 

 water. Pour this, while hot, over two quarts of 

 wheat (or cracked corn), stir well, and continue 

 stirring from time to time, until all the liquid is 

 absorbed. Dry thoroughly, without scorching, 

 and put away in some safe receptacle, labelled : 

 ' Poisoned Grain. Strychnine.' 



" It requires but one kernel to kill a sparrow. 

 A quart of wheat contains about twenty-three 

 thousand kernels, and as a sparrow seldom takes 

 more than two or three, you have enough to rid 

 the neighborhood of about twenty thousand 

 sparrows. Expose the grain where poultry 

 and tame pigeons cannot get it, and by oper- 

 ating only during the winter there will be no 

 danger of poisoning seed-eating wild birds, at 

 least for all northern towns and cities. By 

 taking advantage of the sparrows' gregarious 

 habits, and the fact that they drive off other 

 birds from localities where they are numerous, 

 much might be done even in the south. 



