POISONING SMALL BIRDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1870, 18 June 1888, Page 3

POISONING SMALL BIRDS.

Mr David Evans, of Otautau, writes as follows to the "Western Star": "Notwithstanding that thousands! of pounds navo been Bpent m tie various methods of poisoning a3 a remedy for the. email- birds nuisADco, tho system is now being abandoned, and, to encourage the toy* and. girh to rob the nests and capture the old ones, many of tho local bodies have deoided to increase tho subsidy from 2s 3d t-j 3s per 100 for eggs or heads. Personally I have no faith ia tha present system of poisoning After trying it for years I never came acroeß more than half a: 'dozen poierned birds. Last week I pnrured a ) email quantity of the poisoned groats we read about, which waa carefully distributed, wi h the extraordinary r.-sult thao I picked up one dead mouss ; but m the absence of a p ozt mortem thera i 3 no evidence to show whether tho tiny creature came to «ta death irom an oyerdoao of poison or otberwiße. I havo made enquiries among the farmers m Beveral parte of tho county, and found all, with the exception of one m (ho vicinity of Gumtnie'B Bush, agreed with me that tho poisoning system as hitherto carried on has not been suecesVul .ia' abating the nuisance, I <wojld suggest that oach councillor procure a small quantity of the various preparations now m use and give them all a fair trial. I nm sure th it no right-thinking man would for a moment begrudge the same being paid out of county funds. Ths evil should be regarded a<3 a national one, whioh demands treatment on broad and liberal lines." . .