CHAPTER VIII 

 CONTROL OF VERMIN 



A Popular Fallacy. A popular fallacy is that all that it is 

 necessary to do to increase bird life is to set apart a tract of 

 wild land as a refuge, and prohibit trespass and shooting. 

 At the start there are probably few birds, and after ten 

 years there might not be any more. One reason is that the 

 average wild land abounds with destructive vermin Hawks 

 and owls, which are the principal natural check upon the 

 smaller mammals, have been so reduced in numbers that 

 rats and other vermin abound. True they kill some birds, 

 but they eat more of the enemies of the birds. Because we 

 have upset the balance of nature, we have to help restore it 

 by checking the abnormal increase of vermin. 



Practical Suggestions. This chapter does not pretend to 

 be a complete treatise on trapping, but only is intended to 

 point out some of the accepted practical methods by which 

 vermin is controlled on successful preserves and estates. 

 Traps, guns, and poison are the implements of war which 

 are effective mostly in proportion to the knowledge and dis- 

 cretion employed in their use. 



Hawk Traps. Notwithstanding the fact that raptorial 

 birds destroy much four-legged vermin, we cannot sit idly 

 by if they are actually invading our premises and are de- 

 stroying the birds we are trying to produce. The easiest way 

 to catch marauders of this class is based upon the fact that 

 before pouncing they usually aUght upon some commanding 



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