TRAPPING SPARROWS. 181 



be taken advantage of in the interest of agriculture. While I deem the 

 extermination of the Sparrow practically impossible, still I hold that it 

 can be in a measure suppressed and its devastating pilfering prevented, 

 if the nature of the bird is understood and such efforts are made at the 

 proper time. 



There are still a few who think the Sparrows do a greater proportion 

 of good than harm, and Iain refused the privilege of catching them on 

 their premises. Some object to the destruction of the Sparrow from the 

 stand-point of religion or humanity, and some (mostly unmarried ladies) 

 because they have become attached to them as pets by feeding them 

 regularly through the winter, and "don't like to see the poor little things 

 hurt." In my judgment all efforts at extermination would be futile 

 unless such efforts were simultaneous and universal, as well as persist- 

 ent and continuous; otherwise the result would be only to drive them 

 from a place of molestation to one of security. 



1 have been more or less devoted to bird-catching the whole of my 

 life, and I must say that I have found the Sparrow, considering its num- 

 bers, to be the most difficult of all birds to catch. No bird has baffled 

 and puzzled me in its movements as has the Sparrow. In keeping with 

 my previous remarks I will say here that to be successful o ae must use 

 the utmost care. On one occasion a Sparrow after being caught es- 

 caped from the net just as I was about to reach it. It remained near 

 me, and on the approach of other birds, by cries of alarm, or by flying 

 with them and leading them away, it succeeded in keeping almost every 

 bird from the net. I could not frighten it away, but was interrupted by 

 it in this way for upwards of an hour, when some one passed with a gun 

 and I had them shoot it, after which I proceeded as usual. 



The net usually used at night is upon two poles, the tops of which are 

 bent over and hinged at the points. 



After the birds are caught they very readily adapt themselves to the 

 conditions of confinement, yet never become reconciled to it. Their 

 principal food is feed-meal (corn) and wheat. They are put into a 

 building designed especially for them, capable of holding several thou- 

 sand, which is provided with innumerable ledges, slats, and perches, 

 which are portable. In caging the birds for shipment, all openings to 

 the house are closed, and perches removed, when the birds are driven 

 to one end into and through a chute, the narrow end of which enters 

 the door of a cage, in which they are temporarily inclosed until counted. 

 The loss by death, in keeping them, has been about three per cent., aud 

 I have had them on hand, on an average, about three weeks. 



There are very perceptibly fewer birds in and around the city now 

 than there were a few years ago, especially in my immediate field of 

 operation. I have taken, since the time I first commenced, over 40,000 

 birds, and have perhaps driven many times as many away ; besides 

 which there has been a very general warfare upon them by others, which 

 my efforts seem to have stimulated somewhat. I have been watched 



