464 Poisoning Birds. 
soon learn to help themseives out of the cans. The ditch must 
be kept clean, and if any roads cross the tract, set up a board at 
night, to compel the gophers to tumble in the ditch. This ditch 
should be constructed about the first of Tune, when the outside 
feed begins to dry up, and the pests rush for the cultivated ground. 
With such protection from the outside, and the use of poison 
and traps inside, the trees and vines can be saved. 
DESTRUCTIVE BIRDS. 
Fruit growers generally appreciate the value of insectivo- 
rous birds, but there are feathered pests which do such ruinous 
work in disbudding the trees in spring-time, and in destroying 
ripe fruit, that productive measures have to be adopted against 
them. The so-called “California linnet,”’ which is not a linnet, 
but a finch (Carpodacus frontalis), a persistent destroyer of 
buds, and the English sparrow, infamous the world over, are 
probably the most grievous pests, though there are other de- 
structive birds, including the beautiful California quail, which is 
protected by law, and yet must be destroyed in some parts of the 
State or the grape crop must be abandoned. 
‘For the killing of the smaller birds poison is usually em- 
ployed, and it is best administered in water. Poisoned water 
made of one-eighth ounce strychnine to three gallons of water 
and placed in shallow tin pans in the trees, has been widely ap- 
proved. Cutting oranges in halves, spreading strychnine over 
the cut surface and empaling the half-oranges on twigs high up 
in the apricot trees, has destroyed hundreds of linnets. Some 
advocate the use of the shotgun, No. 30 caliber, with a small 
charge of good powder and No. 10 shot. As many as five hun- 
dred linnets have been killed in two days. The advantage of 
this plan is that one kills linnets and not other birds, while poison 
kills both friends and foes. 
