SMALL BIRDS EXTERMINATOR

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9053, 31 March 1908, Page 6

SMALL BIRDS EXTERMINATOR

The extermination of small birds, which are the cause of muqh loss to farmers every year, is likely to be brought about in time by little owls. Writing to the Otago Acclimatisation Society, Mr A. C. Iversen, of Earnscleugh, state 3 that the owis liberated in that district, after breeding, went away, but returned later on. He thought they must have gone to some place where the small birda were more plentiful. ' Whenever the owls came about the birds disappeared. It made little difference, he thought, where they were liberated, as they would soon spread all over the country. He hoped the Government and the society would introduce each year as many more as could be obtained They should be netted for the first month and fed until they gained the strength of their wings. He had noticed that at any place where the owls had camped there were the remains cf wines and legs of small birds. Further, he had seen the owls trying to catch the birds in daylight. The council -of; the society has decided to take the necessary steps to procure more of the owls and to seek the co-operation of the Farmers' Union in the matter.