SPARROW CATCHING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6506, 3 January 1882, Page 6

SPARROW CATCHING.

Bt A. H. Shubt, Ashbpetok. At tho request of your representative in Ashburton, 1 have great pleasure in supplying you with suoh information as I possess on the subject of the manufacture and use of the bat-folding net for sparrow catching. I write all the more willingly because the experience 1 have gained teaches me that no means at present in use amongst farmers for the destruction of sparrows, linnets and other hedge birds is at all to be compared in efficiency with tho bat-folding net described below, not even the much vaanted poisoned grain. Of coarse 1 always make the proviso that the nets must be used in fair numbers, and a sufficient number of men put on to work them and beat the hedges. If this is done, I can safely guarantee, from my own experience in Ashburton, and that of Mr Digby, my fellow-townsman, that in a very short time the sparrow and the linnet, notwithstanding their reproductive powers, would be reduced so much as to be beyond the power of doingany real harm to the farmer, and persistent netting would iu time eradicate them altogether. Before 1 go further, 1 would also state my belief, that if the sparrow clubs were each to possess themselves of a dozen or so of these nets, and work them energetically, persistently, and in organised gangs of men, in the autumn and winter, the small birds’ nuisance would soon become a thing of the past. There are two kinds of nets used for catching sparrows and linnets—the bat-folding-net and the clap-net. The former is the most deadly, as it is used at night, and the birds are driven into it. The latter is used by day, and depends on decoy birds for enticing the sparrows, Ac,, to enter it. There is also another net the drag-net used for catching larks, partridges, hares, and other ground game. Bat as the sparrow and the linnet form the nuisance just now complained of, I will confine my remarks to what I know to be the most effective destroyer of those birds, viz., the Bat-Foldxug-N XT, which is the one used here, and with which over 2500 birds were taken in about 30 nights (averaging two and a faadf boon Eer (night) off two farms Hi Ashurton. As the net is to be held up by hand, it should be made of the lightest material obtainable that will combine strength, softness, durability, and economy. Silk is the best—that used for netting purses, about 21 skeins to the 2oz packet, is as fine as should be used, and about three packets, or six ounces, is sufficient for a net which, when opened out, will measure 10ft from top to bottom, and 9 or 10ft in the spread at its widest part. The next best material is coarse “ whitey-brown” thread, but the colour is of no consequence, as sparrows are not particular in their choice between being killed by a whitey-brown thread or one of any hue. The thread used by book-binders, bein g glazed, is more easily worked than tho rough thread, which requires waxing for easy manipulation in the weaving. It will take nearly lOoz to make a net of thread the same size os one that will absorb 6oz of silk. The mesh to be used in weaving is a trifle over fin wide, and between |th and l-16th of an inch thick. With a mesh this size, about 70 stitches are oasten to start, and increased one at theend of every row to 100, which will give a net ten feet wide. This width must be kept for the first five feet. When spread out it can then be reduced by taking up a stitch at each row every fourth row, until it is reduced to about 48 stitches, which is small enough. The net should hang slack on the poles (of which anon), as, if too tight, when the birds fly against it they bound off, and do not get entangled; but if it hangs slack, they get their heads through one hole, and their wings and legs through others. The sticks or poles, of. which two are wanted for each net, should bo sixteen feet long. They should be made oat of a four-inch white pine batten, selected carefully, so that the grain is very straight, as otherwise they will break in the bending. A batten will out into four sticks, sufficient to mount two nets. They are planed up round, and nicely smoothed off with sand paper, so that there is no roughness for the net to catch on, and they should be made as light as possible, bub still strong enough to allow the net to be held in the hand without twisting, which they are liable to do in a light wind, if too much reduced. The sticks at the butt should be as heavy as the batten will make them, and gradually taper off to three quarters of an inch at six feet from the point, when they are sharply reduced to five-eighths of an inch thick, ending at the point about half an inch thick. The sticks having been made, it is easy to bend them. First, the two sticks for the net must be exactly the same strength, or they will not bend even. Equality in length ana strength having been scoured, they are then tightly lashed together, say with a bit of wire from a reaping machine, and the end and about eight feet from the point well timmed. Any one can do this by putting tho sticks through a tin pipe, and fixing tho pipe on the spout of a kettle. The kettle must be filled only over the bottom, so that it will generate steam readily that will escape by the spout and through the tube; and the water must be made to boil fast for the same reason. By fastening a string to the points of the sticks they can then, when soft with the steam, be bent to any angle or curve required. The sticks having been bent, are secured in their place by a permanent guy of whipcord or fine eel line. A smaller guy is also passed aorose the foot of the net from 3ft to Sft 6in up, which prevents the net from opening too wide at the bottom, and also secures the end of the net, about a foot of which is turned up and laced on to the cross gay, forming a bag to catch any bird that may fall down. To make the not earn the name of “ folding,” tho two points of the sticks are fastened together with a small leather hinge, the closer the better, leaving room to work, and the net is then lashed round on to the sticks, and it is ready for use. It is just as well to paint one handle black, so that you can tell by bolding that in the right hand always that you have the bag of the net and the guya on the side next to the hedge. Otherwise you

will be frequently in doubt on this point o» • dark night. The not, or rather note, being prepared and ready, you proceed to we them, and to work with advantage it takes three noli on each aide of the hedge, one man on each side to beat, and one to carry a baU’s-eye lantern, and lake a spell, as it is rather hard work either to beat or carry a net for two or three hours—thus a party of 10 or 12 can work advantageotuly together, and no time it bat in taking the birds from the nets nnleas all the nets happen to be closed at once. The proper time, at I have already taid, for a ting the net* it during the autumn and winter nights, when the bird* are in lock*. The flrat night we set out from here we tried as an experiment a small net 4f r > z 7ft. We caught with that alone ICO birds in three hours. As the birds were wanted for a sparrow match they had to be kejr sliro, w that double the time was occupied in taking them from the net that would nave been had they been killed in it first. The bulk of the birds were taken later in the season when they were pairing, and when the neat* are made it is very difficult to get them out of the hedges. Let it be borne in mind thatth* man using the net must never stand too rear the hedge when folding, nor be excited ia taking cut the caught birds, otherwise awkward rente in the net* will occur, an l with care these may all he avoided. The bat-folding nets that were used by Ur Digby and myself were shown at the last A. and P. Association Show at Ashburton along with about two hundred birds taken the previous night. There are two or three parties making nets here, and I believe the r.»ts can be bought for from £2 to £B, or perhaps more, according to quality. If any of your readers wish to know how the drag net for Isrks, &c, ia sued, 1 can Ist you know another time. I may add before I close that Mr J. Tucker Ford, Christchurch, has a net in his posse*tion exactly the same as those used here, and I have no doubt would bo very glad to show anyone in Christchurch the sort of thine it is I have been writing about, ana enable you if you wish to obtain a diagram for publication. Meanwhile, I send you a rough one sufficient, I think, to giv* an idea of the proportions and dimensions. The following diagram is from Mr Shury’# sketch;—