SPARROW SCARE.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20260, 31 July 1937, Page 13

SPARROW SCARE.

STATE-WIDE HUNT. ONE BIRD AT LARGE. WEST AUSTRALIA PERTURBED. (From a Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 16. Western Australia is engaged on a curious hunt. It is looking for a sparrow. The sparrow is an imported pest. From the original pair or two, millions now exist to plague the lives of farmers and suburban gardeners and orchardists. They not only do extensive damage to crops, especially grain, but also by their pugnacious habits, worry, drive out, and even kill more useful Insectivorous birds which are of benefit to agriculturists. All through the many decades in which the sparrow has thrived and multiplied in the eastern States, and even the central State of South Australia, Western Australia has kept itself free of the pest and thereby saved its valuable grain orops from extensive damage. The Great Australian Desert, stretching across the heart of the oontlnent, has been the principal barrier against the sparrow’s migration to the west. In the days when horse teams and camels wore used to cross the desert, sparrows would follow them far Into the sandy wastes, but would invariably turn back before reaching the State’s settled areas. The trans-continental train is now the chief anxiety, and it is constantly watched. Sparrows are prohibited vermin in the Stale, and anyone found harbouring one is liable to a flno of £IOO. Imagine the horror of Western Australians when it was discovered that ‘ one had “stowed away” on a freighter and had escaped when the vessel reached Fremantle. Wide publicity j was given the unwanted visitor. Residents were urged to report it when seen, and destroy it if possible. “Vigilant’’ committees were formed to hunt it. A reward was even offered for its destruction. The fear was that, although the migrant was a bachelor (or a spinster) II would mate with a native bird and visit upon the children the sins or the parent. No announcement has been made of' the sparrow’s capture.