Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 04 July 1890
Cure for Sparrows
I hear occasionally farmers and gardeners complaining of the ravages made among their crops by sparrows, and have listened to their various schemes for remedying the scourge.
Various plans have been tried but most are failures.
One gentlemen in Conisborough, who is fond of gardening, has, with others, felt the effects of the sparrow plague, and has tried various ways to are his crops, but in vain. At last his ingenious mind has hit upon a novel and extraordinary method.
This is, not to kill them, but actually to frighten them with, not a gun or anything noisy, but by appealing to the sense of fear through the eye. He has placed in his garden a fox’s head, which has held place of honour in his house for some years.
Eccentric rather, isn’t it ?