The Mena weekly star., 1896-09-16
HARD TO ExTERMlNATE.
The EngIish Sparrow Survives the War
 fare Against Him.

 claims will rid the city of the English sparrows, which he thinks are pest. Of course, many of US would seriously miss the saucy, good-natured little tel- lows that chatter around the windows and buildnests in caves and behind signs with the most utter disrespect to the feelings and tastes of the owners. There are thousands and thousands of them Tn every section of the city, and it is the belief of many people that they drive away the other birds; but in the spring the Baltimore oriole plays among the trees in the resident part of the city, the robin nests in the tall trees In the outskirts, and frequently is seen in the city all summer; the bulejay is seen in his season, the pine grosbeak makes us pleasant call, and the nighthawk speaks" over our heads all the pleasant evenings of the long summer. The doves. a half-dozen kinds of them, nest in every belfry tower, and the jolly. clannish English sparrow hops about the streets, keeping them clean.
 But Mir. Quimby wants them killed off, and after long study on the subject has devised a means at once melan- choly and tragic. He has invented disease that will kill them all within year of the day that it is unbottled among them-so he says. He got his ideas from German professor, who un dertook not long ago to rid Australia of the rabbit curse. This German said ] that he could introduce chickenpox among the rabbits of Australia and kill them off in no time. He did so, andthe rabbits i'll several sections died like sheep, but the disease soon ceased to l spread.
 Mir. Quimby thinks that the disease he has found is similar to the sickness that has recently spread so fast among the Maine turkeys and has killed them off, so that to-day you'll hardly find one on a ride through the country. He caught several birds and eXperimented with the germs of different human dis eases, but none of them would take"
 Then he fed them on a certain kind of food and they died in an hour. He put fresh birds into the cage with them and they died also, in the same way. He has
 
 started is very contagious and will rid the city of birds in short time if it is let loose among them.
 But he has misgivings. Suppose that the death of so many birds should cause a pest among the plucked bipeds, too? It would be no laughing matter then
 Another Lewiston man says that he believes the sparrows do a great deal of good. They keep the streets clean and the city free from the accumulation of decaying matter. A piece of bread can not be dropped in a back alley without | dozen birds being around it in a moment, and in an hour the piece is gone. This man has to suggest, however, that if the l people want to be rid of the pest, as they call the bright little fellows, they can follow the example Of d western city, which hired-he says-an expert to kill them. The expert bought large amount of yeast-thousands of cakes, in fact, cut them up i'll small bits. One morning the streets were found to be covered with these pieces of yeast. By sunrise thousands and thousands of English sparrows were seen picking up the pieces. Soon the edges of the water 1 ing troughs were lined with the birds, drinking as fast as they could When they had drunk for awhile the birds would rise up in the air and-pop! they would explode like firecracker and fall to the ground. It needed no second dose of yeast to complete the task.
 City Marshal Feel suggests that he was always told that the best way to catch a bird was to put salt upon his tail He says that if it is the opinion of the inhabitants that the English spar rows must go, he will have the dog off, | ficer commence on this task as soon as he has captured all of the unlicensed dogs in the city.
 MT. ". B. Bunker, of Lewiston. has recently built martin house, which he says will contain them. The English 1 sparrows will drive out anything from 1 the kind of birdhouse that will allow a crowd of them to get into it at once. But with apartments in the houses the | little fellows are at disadvantage. and will not try more than onceao dslodge the martins. He says that he has built martin houses before and knows where | of he speaks.
 The plan that some one has suggested of trapping the sparrows with steel | traps is cruel and not feasible. Thomas Mansfield, of Strawberry place, often expressed himself as against the plan of the traps. They would catch too many of his valuable blooded doves. He 1 does not try to trap the hawks that tor