BIRD NOTES and NEWS 



Jfssueo (Quarterly by tlje lloiral J^orietir for the protection of |5rros. 

 Vol. III.— No. 7.] London : 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. [SEPT. 29, 1909. 



THE POLE-TRAP AGAIN. 



LTHOUGH the Act prohibiting 

 the use of Pole-Traps has now 

 been in existence five years, and 

 every effort has been made by the 

 Pv.S.P.B. to publish it as widely as possible, 

 these barbarous instruments have not yet 

 been wholly abolished. The Society has 

 recently had information of their use in the 

 north of England, in Wales, and in Scotland. 

 The complaints of their use in the Princi- 

 pality necessitated the sending of an Inspector 

 to investigate, not only for the purpose of 

 obtaining convictions in special cases, but in 

 order to impress the law upon landowners 

 and keepers in the district. A short report 

 of the prosecutions undertaken by the Society 

 appears under the heading " In the Courts," 

 on page 92 ; but the brief statement of facts, 

 where both defendants pleaded guilty, gives 

 little idea of the time and trouble essential 

 to the proving of the offences. At all times 

 it is difficult to discover breaches of the Pole- 

 Trap Act. The traps are on private estates, 

 in game preserves, where probably no one's 

 business takes him save that of the keeper 

 alone. The proprietor or tenant of the 

 shooting has perhaps called the attention of 

 his gamekeeper to the requirements of the 

 law, of which he can hardly be in ignorance ; 

 but, as likely as not, he turns a blind-eye to 

 the actual methods by which his good 

 bag is to be secured. The keeper, obsessed 

 with the one idea of Game versus Vermin, 

 follows up his creed untiringly with gun and 

 trap. The pole is erected, the spring-trap 

 set upon it ; some Owl, Kestrel, Cuckoo or 

 Sparrowhawk alights, is gripped by the leg 

 in the steel jaws, and hangs there, possibly 

 for days, tortured and djung. If the trap is 



noticed it is usually by some tenant or 

 employe, who, if he knows the thing to be 

 illegal, would certainly not find it to his 

 interests to inform the police. 



In Wales, on the grouse-moors among the 

 hills, the difficulties of the case are multi- 

 plied a hundredfold. The Inspector soon 

 had information enough to assure him that 

 Pole-Traps were not unknown implements, at 

 any rate in some parts of Montgomery and 

 Carmarthenshire. But information and evi- 

 dence are two different matters. There 

 seems little doubt that in the spring-time his 

 search would have been an easier one ; when 

 the shooting season arrives such traps are 

 commonly put out of action for a while. 



" I have a most difficult task here," wrote 



the Inspector in one of his reports : 



" Very little English is spoken by the class from 

 whom I want information. The hills are terrible, 

 and the thick growth of foliage renders it most 

 difficult to see to advantage at a distance. Yester- 

 day I got within a short distance of a place where 

 I have reason to believe there are traps set, when a 

 heavy mist suddenly began to fall, and I was 

 obliged to make a hasty retreat, as the mountains 

 are full of ravines. One thing I have ascertained 

 for a fact — Pole-Traps are used in the mountains." 



Two or three days later he had reason to 



report : 



" I should say that Pole-Traps are largely used 

 in this country." 



Following this came the discovery of poles 

 without traps, and the information from a 

 resident that the traps were put up in 

 spring-time. Eventually proceedings were 

 resolved upon in the two cases of which full 

 proof was secured, and in which convictions 

 was subsequently obtained. 



It need hardly be said that the meagre 

 expenses allowed in the one case, and the 

 Court costs given in the other, form but a 



