72 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



More recently, a countryman at Tunstall, who has 

 successfully tried some remarkable experiments in 

 capturing stoats, otters, coots, jackdaws, and other 

 creatures alive, caught a number of Rooks. He 

 stated they boldly entered his hen-coops to steal 

 eggs, which they carried away in their feet ! So he 

 declared! He consequently baited the hen-coops 

 with maize, to the shortly-enjoyed delight of the 

 depredators, who reached the maize by squeezing in 

 below, through an aperture left for their ingress. 

 When the man deemed the coops sufficiently 

 tenanted he hurriedly showed himself. The birds, 

 naturally alarmed, forgot the only way of escape 

 below, and poking their heads excitedly out through 

 the higher apertures, became an easy prey. At one 

 time, the man avows, he took ten Rooks in one 

 coop ! 



In January 1891 I saw a Common Snipe, with both 

 legs broken, hanging on a poulterer's stall. On 

 inquiry, I found that a country lad, who was more 

 than half a poacher, had watched this species, and 

 observing its frequent footprints in a moist corner, 

 set for it a steelfall, with an unlucky result to one 

 bird at least. He similarly watched the Woodcock, 

 and in this way trapped one ; but a cat was before 



