The Republican., 1896-09-10
HARD 10 EXTERMLNATE.
The English Sparrow Survives the war
fare Against Him.

| mans QulmDy-naS 1Ounu what ne
| claims will rid the city of the English
| sparrows, which he thinks are a pest.
| OF course, many of US would seriously
miss the saucy, good-natured little fl-
| lows that chatter around the windows
| and build nests in caves and behind Sims
with the most utter disrespect toIthe
feelings and tastes of the owners. There
are thousands and thousands of them in
| 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 n the
city all summer; the btlejay is seen in
! his season, the pine grosbeall makes us
g 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 Mr.. Quimby wants them killed off,
and after a long study on the subject
has devised a means at once nelan-
choly and tragic. He has inve1 ed a
disease that will kill them all ~ y a
year of the day that it is lnibN ed
among them-so he says. He got his
ideas from a 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 in several sections died like
sheep, but the disease soon ceased to
spread.
Mr.. Quimby thinks that the disease
he has found is similar 20 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 experimental
with the germs OF different human dis
eases, but none Of Them would take"
Then he fed them on 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
become certain that the disease thus
started is very contagious and will rid
the city of birds in a short time if it is
let loose among them.
But he has misgivings. Suppose that
the death of so many birds should cause
pest among the plucked bipeds, too?
| II XSrn1,1I 1,a To,
Another Lewiston man says that he
believes the sparrows do 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 back alley without a
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
people want to be rid of the pest, as
they call the bright little fellows, they
can follow the example of western
city, which hired-he says-ap expert
to kill them. The expert bought a large
amount of yeast-thousands of cakes,
in fact, cut them up in 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
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 ar and-pop! they
would explode like firecracker and fall
to the ground. 1t needed no second
dose of yeast to complete the task.
| City Marshal Teel 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 of
| ticer commence on this task as soon
as he has captured all of the unlicensed
! dogs in the city.
Mr.. w. B. Bunker, of Lewiston, has
recently built martin house, which he
says will contain them. The English
| sparrows will drive out anything from
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 once to dislodge
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
does not try to trap the hawks that tor
ment him on that account.
Many farmers place steel traps on
the top of poles and bait them with
meat. but if they should try that at the
strawberry place dove farm some of
these fine tumbler doves might be
caught in the same way.-Lewiston
(Me.) journal.