HOW TO DESTROY ENGLISH SPARROWS. 
9 
BAITING. 
Preliminary to the following destructive measures, s])arr()ws should 
be baited until they are attached to the spot selected for their execu¬ 
tion. Seeds, grain, or waste from the table, if supplied regularly, will 
soon establish a feeding place. If a general campaign is to lie under¬ 
taken, enough such feeding places should be maintained to atti’act to 
them practically all the English sparrows in the neighboihood. This 
can easily be done in winter when food is scarce. After thus baiting 
the sparrows they may be trapped, sliot, oi‘ poisoned. 
TRAPPING. 
Traps alone are inadeciuate to exterminate sparrows, but a reduc¬ 
tion of numbers can be etfected by using a shallow box not less tlian 
4 feet square, open on one side and covered with woven wire on the 
other. One side of this trap rests on the ground, while the opposite 
Fig. 4.—A sparrow trap. 
side is supported by a stick IS inches long. Near the upper end of 
this stick is attached a long cord, and between the top of it and the 
edge of the trap (see fig. 4) is placed a chip. By setting the trap over 
bait and pulling the cord from a sheltered point of observation when 
a flock of sparrows is beneath it, numbers of them mav be caught. 
Instead of the box described above, by which the birds are taken 
alive, an old door or similar device may be employed as a deadfall. 
In either case the trap should be kept set and baited until the spar¬ 
rows are not afraid to go under it. The best time for trapping is just 
after a snowstorm, when the birds have been fasting. Then, if the 
ground be cleared and chaff and grain be put under the trap, the birds 
will crowd in and enable the trapper to secure nearly all of the local 
flock. If any escape they will spread the fear of traps, and before 
long very few of the birds can be induced to go into one. 
SHOOTING. 
Sparrows are accustomed to feed in close flocks, and when thus 
assembled a large number can be killed by a charge of No. 10 shot. 
The best way is to scatter grain over long, narrow areas and shoot the 
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