Part 7 (2/2)

thus set. The slightest weight on the false perch thus made will throw the parts asunder, and the cover closes with a snap.

The greatest difficulties in constructing the trap will be found in the bearings of the bait sticks (_b_), the ends of which must be perfectly flat and join snugly, in order to hold themselves together. The box may now be suspended in a tree by the aid of a string at the top. The first bird that makes bold enough to alight on the perch is a sure captive, and is secured without harm. If desired, the elastic may be attached to the inside of the cover, extending to the back of the box, as seen in the initial at the head of this chapter. If the elastic in any event shows tendencies toward relaxing, the tin catch described on page 88 should be adjusted to the lower edge of the box to insure capture.

THE HAWK TRAP.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Our ill.u.s.tration represents a hawk in a sad plight. The memory of a recent feast has attracted it to the scene of many of [Page 94]

its depredations: but the ingenious farmer has at last outwitted his feathered foe and brought its sanguinary exploits to a timely end. This trap is a ”Yankee” invention and has been used with great success in many instances where the hawk has become a scourge to the poultry yard. The contrivance is clearly shown in an ill.u.s.tration, consisting merely of a piece of plank two feet square, set with stiff perpendicular pointed wires.

This affair was set on the ground in a conspicuous place, the board covered with gra.s.s, and the nice fat Poland hen which was tied to the centre proved a morsel too tempting for the hawk to resist.

Hence the ”fell swoop” and the fatal consequences depicted in our ill.u.s.tration. The owl has also been successfully captured by the same device.

THE WILD DUCK NET.

Following will be found two examples of traps in very common use for the capture of wild ducks, and in the region of Chesapeake bay, immense numbers of the game are annually taken by their aid.

The first is the well known net trap, so extensively used in nearly all countries, both for the capture of various kinds of fish as well as winged game. Our ill.u.s.tration gives a very clear idea of the construction of the net, and an elaborate description is almost superfluous. It consists of a graduated series of hoops covered by a net work. From each a converging net extends backward ending in a smaller hoop which is held in position by cords extending [Page 95]

therefrom to the next larger hoop. The depth of these converging nets should extend backward about three or four feet from the large hoop; and the distance between these latter should be about five feet. The length of the net should be about twenty feet, terminating in a ”pound” or netted enclosure, as seen in the ill.u.s.tration. The trap may be set on sh.o.r.e or in the water as seen. ”Decoy” birds are generally used, being enclosed in the pound.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

When set on land the bait consisting of corn or other grain should be spread about the entrance and through the length of the net.

It is remarkable that a duck which so easily finds its way within the netted enclosure, should be powerless to make its escape, but such seems to be the fact, and even a single hoop with its reflex net, has been known to secure a number of the game.

THE HOOK TRAP

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Our second example is one which we are almost tempted to exclude on account of its cruelty, but as our volume is especially devoted to traps of all kinds and as this is a variety in very common use, we feel bound to give it a pa.s.sing notice. Our ill.u.s.tration fully conveys its painful mode of capture, and a beach at low water is generally the scene of the slaughter. A long stout cord is first stretched across the sand and secured [Page 96]

to a peg at each end. To this shorter lines are attached at intervals, each one being supplied with a fish hook baited with a piece of the tender rootstock of a certain water reed, of which the ducks are very fond. The main cord and lines are then imbedded in the sand, the various baits only appearing on the surface, and the success of the device is equal to its cruelty.

THE ”FOOL'S CAP” TRAP.

Of all oddities of the trap kind, there is, perhaps, no one more novel and comical than the ”Fool's Cap” crow-trap, which forms the subject of our present ill.u.s.tration. Crows are by no means easy of capture in any form of trap, and they are generally as coy and as shrewd in their approach to a trap as they are bold in their familiarity and disrespect for the sombre scarecrows in the com field. But this simple device will often mislead the smartest and shrewdest crow, and make a perfect _fool_ of him, for it is hard to imagine a more ridiculous sight than is furnished by the strange antics and evolutions of a crow thus embarra.s.sed with his head imbedded in a cap which he finds impossible to remove, and which he in vain endeavors to shake off by all sorts of gymnastic performance. The secret of the little contrivance is easily told.

The cap consists of a little cone of stiff paper, about three or four inches in diameter at the opening. This is imbedded in the ground, up to its edge, and a few grains of corn are dropped into it. The inside edge of the opening is then smeared with _bird-lime_, [Page 97]

a substance of which we shall speak hereafter.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The crow, on endeavoring to reach the corn, sinks his bill so deep in the cone as to bring the gummy substance in contact with the feathers of his head and neck, to which it adheres in spite of all possible efforts on the part of the bird to throw it off.

The cones may be made of a brownish-colored paper if they are to be placed in the earth, but of white paper when inserted in the snow. It is an excellent plan to insert a few of these cones in the fresh corn hills at planting season, as the crows are always on the watch at this time, and will be sure to partake of the tempting morsels, not dreaming of the result. The writer has often heard of this ingenious device, and has read of its being successfully employed in many instances, but he has never yet had an opportunity of testing it himself. He will leave it for his readers to experiment upon for themselves.

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