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Notes for the Month.



quarry till it is tired (or you are, whichever happens first) and

making frantic dives and flourishes at the bird as it passes or settles.


Another simple method is the old-fashioned sieve and string,

but there are, at least, two objections to it: one is the sieve some¬

times falls on the bird and kills it, and the other is that it is a case of

first catch your bird and then (jet it. A very simple and inex¬

pensive contrivance consists of a hollow cube covered with wire work,

one side of which is a swinging door. An illustration of this trap

is given:—



TRAP



The main entrance is hinged at the top as shewn. When it

is wished to use it, one puts the food on the floor of the cage, opens

the swing door, which by means of the post keeps it so. To the post

is tied a piece of long string which the catcher holds in hiding. Food

is withheld, except in the trap. The bird goes in. The string pulled,

the door closes with a snap and you have the bird, which is removed

through a small door at one end. Mine cost 2/9 without the wire

netting, and by means of it hundreds of birds have been caught

without a mishap. It must be fairly large so as not to suggest a

trap, and it is a good plan to use it as a feeding place for some days

before one wishes to catch a given bird. It is well to place the food

as far away from the swinging door as possible.


Captain Reeves has also invented a combined hopper and

bird trap, which is very ingenious, but as under the writer’s use a

hen violet-eared waxbill was killed, its use as a trap lias been dis¬

continued. It is also very cumbersome and somewhat costly.

Enough then has been said in catching birds, and the necessity for



