The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-12-27
TRAP SPARROWS
FOR THE TABLE!
UNCLE SAM SAYS THEY WILL
LOWER COST OF LIVING
AND RID COUNTRY
OF PEST.

DIR. a. X. Fisher aud his associates
in the government biological survey
at Washington have a new plan for
the determination of the English SPAR
row. the worst pest in the feathered
kingdom. Every householder is to
have sparrow trap-a cheap but ef-
fective little device that has been Sc
cured from England, where the SPAR
row was secured sixty years ago.
These traps are to help solve the
| cost of living problem. From the spar
row trap each day are to be taken
plump little birds to be fried, broiled
pot-pied or prepared in some other
culinary disguise which will make
them palatable and wholesome.
Those who have tried sparrow fare
declare the the bird is most deli
cious meat. For long time il has
masqueraded under the name of reed
bird" in various cafes. If the public
can be convinced of the wholesome
ness and deliciousness of the little
feathered robber and can be persuad-
ed to join in the fight for the capture
and determination of the bird Dr.
Fisher believes the number of spar
rows in the United States can be ma
terially reduced.
Trapping the live birds is not the
only method to be followed, however
The department of agriculture recon-
mends a ruthless slaughter of the
young; the Turing of the birds TO shell
tered nests where they can be cap
tured at night, and the construction of
nests where the sparrow eggs can be
reached and broken. Wherever posi-
BILE it urges the poisoning of the spar
rows with grain soaked in strychnia
sulphate.
Inhumane as the program reads, it
is declared by the biological survey
official to be absolutely necessary to
hold the birds i'm check. Their spread
throughout the United States has been
the most remarkable chapter in the
bird history of North America ex-
cept, possibly, the sudden and COM
plete disappearance of the passenger
pigeon.
Today the government is expending
large sums of money to find methods
to prevent the spread of sparrows;
states and municipalities are paying
large bounties for the death of the
birds; buildings, crops, small fruits
and flowers are being ruined by the
marauders and all other birds have
been driven out of many cities.
History of Sparrow Boom.
Under the circumstances it is hard
to realize that less than forty years
ago there was a sparrow boom in
this country that sent the price of
birds skyhigh in New York. Such high
prices were asked for pairs of the birds
that people in Cleveland, Philadelphia,
Galveston, Tex, Salt Lake City and in
various other parts of the country,
banded together and sent to Europe
for colonies of sparrows.
The sparrow was hailed for years
as the bird that was to prove a great
benefactor to the United States. In
less than thirty years after the first
eight pairs were introduced into
Brooklyn, in 1850, the bird had spread
so completely over the United States
and had so completely belied its rep
utation as a benefactor, that efforts
were started to rid the cities of the
great flocks.
Every resident of an American city
knows how completely such efforts
have failed. In some of the country
districts the birds have not yet be-
come numerous. but they are so thick
in most American cities that they act
ually make the city crowded" from
bird point of view; and the new crops
of sparrows are forced to go to the
outskirts or into the country, to get
their dishonest living.