Removing Pests in the Common.

Otago Witness, Issue 1652, 21 July 1883, Page 28

Removing Pests in the Common.

The balance of animals was fatally disturbed in Boston some years ago. The worms of Boston common were exterminated by the sparrows. Squirrels were then introduced, and before long exterminated the sparrows by the process of eating their eggs. The excess of squirrels was then sought to be reduced by the introduction of cats, who did their work so thoroughly that in the course of a year few squirrels survived, and the common swarmed with cats to such an extent that no respectable prison cared to enter it. The next and final effort to regulate the common was the introduction of policemen, who soon killed the cats. At this point the resources of the authorities were exhausted. No one could think of any animal warranted to exterminato i the police, and as a consequence the latter still infest the common to the complete exclusion of all other animals. The same unscientific method is now sought to be applied to our own Central Park where nothing but Mr Bergh prevents the policemen from exterminating the squirrels that exterminated the birds that exterminated the worms that threatened to exterminate the tree's. -N. Y. Times.