52 THE BROWN EAT IN THE UNITED STATES. 



friendly rivalry which stimulates the contestants to do their utmost 

 to win. 



In England and some of its colonies contests for prizes have been 

 organized to promote the destruction of the European house sparrow, 

 but many of the so-called "sparrow clubs" are really sparrow and rat 

 clubs, for the destruction of both pests are avowed objects of the 

 organization. A sparrow club in Kent, England, secured the destruc- 

 tion of 28,000 sparrows and 16,000 rats in three seasons, by the 

 annual expenditure of but £6 ($29.20) in prize money. a Had ordi- 

 nary bounties been paid for this destruction, the tax on the com- 

 munity would have been about £250 (over $1,200). 



AN INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY. 



Perhaps the most extensive campaign ever organized against rats 

 is that undertaken by L' Association Internationale pour le Destruc- 

 tion Rationelle des Rats, a society which originated in Denmark and 

 was organized through the influence of a civil engineer named Emil 

 Zuschlag. The purposes of the society are to spread information con- 

 cerning the mischief done by rats and to carry on a general cam- 

 paign for their destruction. The influence of the organization has 

 already borne fruit in increased activity in fighting rats in Denmark, 

 Sweden, Saxony, and other countries. In Denmark and Sweden a 

 system of small bounties for killing rats has for several years been 

 in general operation in some of the larger cities, and the Danish Par- 

 liament has made appropriations to assist municipalities throughout 

 that Kingdom in paying premiums for the work of destruction. 

 General supervision of the work is in the hands of the society, which 

 receives regular quarterly reports of progress made in the various 

 municipalities. The form of report is shown in Plate III, which is 

 an exact copy of the report for the city of Copenhagen for the last 

 quarter of 1907. The premiums paid are usually small — from 5 to 10 

 ore (1J to 2§ cents) for each rat. Mr. Zuschlag recently reported that 

 under the Danish law appropriating government funds for the prose- 

 cution of the society's work, 1,141,293 rats were destroyed during 

 the first year, ending July 1, 1908. 6 



In the city of Copenhagen and its suburbs the campaign began in 

 December, 1899, and 103,000 rats were destroyed during the first 

 eighteen weeks. The premium paid was 10 ore for each rat, but 

 other expenses brought the total cost to about $3,450. The society 

 estimated that during one year 100,000 rats would commit depreda- 

 tions upon property amounting to $97,820; by the work of destruc- 

 tion the city had, therefore, been saved the sum of $94,370. c During 



a Jour. Board of Agr. Great Britain, vol. 9, p. 342, 1902. 



b Jour. Inc. Soc. for Dest. Vermin, vol. 1, p. 32, October, 1908. 



cLe Rat Migratoire, Emil Zuschlag, p. 62, Copenhagen, 1908. 



