REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 



119 



either starved, or fed with grain, before being sent back again to eat the 

 vermin. 



As a general conclusion to be drawn from this section, the gardener 

 will learn on the one hand to be cautious how far he destroys birds of any 

 kind ; but he will also, on the other, watch the operations of birds, and 

 when he finds them committing depredations on newly-sown seeds, on seeds 

 coming through the ground, on flowers, or on fruits, have recourse to some 

 mode of deterring without destroying them. 



870. The different modes of deterring birds may be reduced to the follow- 

 ing : — Excluding by netting, or other coverings, supported at a few inches' 

 distance from the rising seedlings, fruit, flower, or plant to be protected ; setting 

 up scares, of different kinds, such as m.ock men or cats, mock hawks or other 

 birds of prey, miniature wind-mills or clapper-mills ; lines with feathers tied 

 at regular distances, placed at a few inches' distance above the rows of newly- 

 sown peas, or other seeds sown in drills ; over rows of crocuses or other 

 dwarf spring flowers, or over beds or entire compartments. A system of 

 dark worsted threads, placed in front of wall-trees at a few inches' distance 

 from the leaves, wiU scare away most birds ; because, taking the worsted 

 string for a twig, and lighting on it, it turns round by the grasp, and sinking 

 at the same time by the weight, the bird falls, and if this happens to him on 

 a second attempt, he will be deterred for the future. The following scare is 

 founded on an idea given by Mr. Swainson in the Encyclopedia of Agricul. 2d 

 edit., p. 1112: — Let poles, ten or twelve feet high, be firmly fixed in the 

 ground, in conspicuous parts of the garden, each pole terminating in an iron 

 spike six or eight inches long ; pass this spike through the body of a dead 

 hawk in the direction of the back -bone : it will thus be firmly secured, and 

 give the bird an erect position ; the wings being free, will be moved by every 

 breeze, and their unnatural motion will prove the best scarecrow either for 

 ravenous or granivorous birds, more particularly the latter. Cats are found 

 useful in walled gardens as scares to birds, as well as for other purposes. 

 R. Brook, Esc[., of Melton Lodge, near Woodbridge, in Siiffblk, has four or 

 five cats, each with a collar and light chain and swivel, about a yard long, with 

 a large iron ring at the end. As soon as the gooseberries, currants, and rasp- 

 berries, begin to ripen, a small stake is driven into the ground, or bed, near 

 the trees to be protected, leaving about a yard and a half of the stake above 

 ground; the ring is slipped over the head of the stake, and the cat being thus 

 tethered in sight of the trees, no birds will approach them. Cherry trees and 

 wall-fruit trees are protected in the same manner as they successively ripen. 

 Each cat, by way of a shed, has one of the largest-sized flower-pots laid on its 

 side, withm reach of its chain, with a little hay or straw in bad weather, and 

 her food and water placed near her. A wall of vines between 200 and 800 

 yards long, in Kirke's Nursery, Brompton, the fruit of which, in all pre- 

 vious seasons, had been very much injured by birds, was one year completely 

 protected from them, in consequence of a cat having voluntarily posted 

 herself sentry upon it. (Hort. Trans. 2d series, and Gard. Mag. vol. xii. 

 p. 429.) A stuffed cat has also been found efficacious. Crows and rooks are, 

 in some parts of the country, deterred from lighting on sown wheats by pieces 

 of rag dipped in a mixture of bruised gunpowder and tar, and stuck on rods, 

 which are placed here and there over the field, and the rags renewed every 

 three or four days. Of course this scare only operates where the birds have 

 been previously accustomed to be shot at. The most certain mode of scaring 



