ANIMAL AND BIRD PESTS. 



JOEL BENTON. 



Although the fact is quite familiar every- 

 where that various countries have suf- 

 fered much from the well meant importa- 

 tion of certain animals and birds that have 

 become destructive nuisances, few ap- 

 preciate the extent and variety of their 

 depredations. The instances that will oc- 

 cur first to the reader are without doubt 

 the English sparrow, more strictly called 

 the house sparrow, which was introduced 

 nearly 50 years ago from England to 

 Brooklyn, and many years later to different 

 New England towns, from all of which 

 centers it has spread nearly everywhere; 

 and the Australian rabbit, also brought to 

 its new home from England. 



The efforts to extinguish these when it 

 was found that instead of becoming friends 

 of the farmer and the inhabitants generally 

 they became their enemies are too well 

 known to need repetition here. The spar- 

 row possesses the Western Hemisphere 

 almost completely, from the Arctic to the 

 Antarctic circle, together with the isles of 

 the sea; while rabbit-proof fences, boun- 

 ties, butcheries, and other devices have 

 scarcely thinned out perceptibly the rabbit 

 in Australia. 



In an interesting and well illustrated 

 article of great length and detail Dr. T. S. 

 Palmer, chief of the Biological Survey, has 

 contributed to the last Year Book of the 

 Department of Agriculture a large number 

 of facts concerning unfortunate animal and 

 bird transportation. These relate not only 

 to our own country, but to other countries 

 all over the world. Our weed pests, for 

 the most part, it seems, come to us by ac- 

 cident, but chicory, wild garlic and the 

 water hyacinth of Florida are exceptions 

 to this statement. They were brought here 

 for ornamentation, but their conquering 

 prolificacy has made them troublesome 

 weeds. On the other hand, animals and 

 birds have been usually made emigrants 

 by forced assistance. Rats, mice, taran- 

 tulas and certain pests known to be pests, 

 that came here by accident and not by in- 

 vitation, are, of course, the exceptions to 

 this rule. 



The story told on this subject by Dr. 

 Palmer is much too long to bear putting 

 down briefly, but a few selected points 

 from it are worth general attention. He 

 says that in 1892 a report was current that 

 the Department of Agriculture was about 

 to introduce the mongoose into this coun- 

 try to bring extermination on the gophers 

 of the West; but it was a false report. Its 



circulation, however, elicited the fact that 

 the importation of that animal into Jamaica 

 and Hawaii for the purpose of killing rats 

 was practically a failure. It did kill rats, 

 but it also destroyed pigs, poultry, lambs, 

 valuable birds that nested low, eggs and 

 various fruits, so that it was 10 times 

 more of a pest than the one it was expected 

 to remove. In Hawaii it destroyed val- 

 uable native birds, among them the Ha- 

 waiian goose and the Hawaiian duck 

 which is a peculiar species. Now these in-* 

 troducing countries are doing what they 

 can to destroy the once welcomed de- 

 stroyer. 



The mongoose is a native- of India. It 

 looks like a blend of the weasel and ferret 

 with the fox, and, judging from the picture 

 given of it, must be heavier and much 

 larger than a woodchuck. Our government 

 has been careful, since its complete charac- 

 ter is now known, to keep it off the main- 

 land, although for the present we mmst 

 submit to its residence in Hawaii and 

 Puerto Rico. 



A single specimen of the flying fox, 

 which is really a mammoth bat, and a na- 

 tive of Australia, was brought in 1893 to 

 San Francisco. The quarantine officer 

 killed it and meted out the same fate to 

 four more that arrived there a little later. 

 There was good reason for this, for the 

 animal is a fruit eater, and can fly long 

 distances. It is prolific, and rather too 

 cunning to be artistically trapped or de- 

 stroyed. The largest species is the one 

 known as the Malay fruit bat, which 

 measures more than 5 feet across the 

 wings. As it is a tropical animal the 

 Northern portion of our country could not 

 suffer from it, but the Southern portion 

 might, and Hawaii needs to prohibit its ar- 

 rival. In the Philippines we doubtless pos- 

 sess it. 



It is said that New Zealand, about a 

 dozen years ago, in order to decrease the 

 myriads of rabbits, introduced stoats, wea- 

 sels and ferrets. So many were let loose — 

 22,000 ferrets at one time — that the rabbits 

 suffered a marked decrease. These various 

 animals, however, desiring a mi?#ed dietary, 

 began soon to kill game birds and other 

 valuable native birds. This destruction, 

 which was not wanted, has been so com- 

 plete that it has been suggested to set 

 aside an island along the New Zealand 

 coast where the more interesting indigen- 

 ous species of birds can be kept from com- 

 plete destruction. 



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