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Show DR. PAUL DENOUNCES SP1WD CATS University Professor Says They Drive Song Birds Away. ! The cause of insectivorous song birds as against the English sparrow was argued ar-gued last night before the city commission commis-sion by Dr. J. If. Paul, professor of ornithology orni-thology at the University of Utah. Dr. Paul waited upon the commission with the understanding that he would be given opportunity to talk in favor of some action to be proposed by Commissioner Herman H. Green of the parks department aimed at destruction of the sparrows. Commissioner Green was absent from the meeting because of illness, but Dr. Paul talked on the subject at the invitation of the commission. Dr. Paul arraigned the sparrow for the disappearance of many of the most attractive at-tractive song birds from their one-time haunts. The house cat he also condemned in emphatic terms. He said that the house cat invariably hunts song birds, passing by sparrows to do so, that cats are carriers car-riers of disease, that they are unworthy of the affection lavished upon them and that they should be taxed. Dr. Paul urged that it was the duty of tho city government to do something toward to-ward reduction of the number of sparrows, since it is in the cities that the little brown pests have their strongholds. He pointed out, however, that they are becoming be-coming so numerous In and about Salt Lake that the song birds that were once common in the city's parks and shrubbery are being driven bark farther and farther each year beyond the municipal limits. graphic illustration of his remarks was afforded by Dr. Paul with an exhibit of the skins of song birds of beautiful plumage, plum-age, which, he says, are being surely lost to the city and. perhaps, the state hy th,e increase in the number of sparrows. The song birds, he explained, are insectivorous in-sectivorous and usually of beautiful plumage, plum-age, while the sparrows that drive the song birds hefnre them, because of their pugnacious natures and their Immense numbers, are grain eaters. This, he explained, ex-plained, makes it possible tn poison the sparrow with Utile danger of doing hurt to the desirable birds. Poisoned grain for baiting the sparrows can easily be prepared, Dr. Paul explained, by soaking two cpiarts of wheat in a solution solu-tion made by dissolving one-eighth of an ounce of sulphate of strychnine In half a pint of hot water. The grain can be kept dry and sprinkled for the sparrows after they have first been induced to come in numbers to feed upon unpoisoned grain. The commissioners all thanked Dr. Paul enthusiastically at the close of his talk and assured him of their Interest in anv action promising relief from the sparrow pest. |