160 BIRD FRIENDS 



bird enters, its weight pushes down a pivoted can 

 and the bird drops down into the bottom, where it 

 is imprisoned and may be easily removed and killed. 



In Farmers' Bulletin No. 493 is described a bait 

 trap. This is a kind of funnel trap made of woven- 

 wire poultry netting. It consists of four parts: 

 (1) a half -funnel leading into (2) an antechamber, 

 which ends in (3) a complete funnel leading into 

 (4) a final chamber. Canary seed, hemp seed, wheat, 

 oats, and bread-crumbs may be used for bait. These 

 are scattered in the antechamber and a little about 

 the entrance. A live sparrow may be kept in the 

 trap as a decoy. The trap will prove more effective 

 if it is moved daily from one feeding-place to an- 

 other. The sparrows are removed from the trap 

 by means of a small receiving-box which is placed 

 against a small door leading out of the final cham- 

 ber. The sparrows may be easily drowned by 

 placing in a bag and immersing in a pail of water. 



These traps have been widely used with much 

 success. Average catches of ten or twenty birds a 

 day are reported, and an occasional catch of one 

 hundred in a day. The bulletin mentioned above 

 reports a catch of three hundred in six weeks. One 

 man reports a catch of six thousand sparrows in four 

 years through the use of traps. These traps may be 

 purchased from a number of dealers listed in Chap- 

 ter XIX, at prices ranging from three to six dollars. 



