SETTING TRAPS FOR BIRDS 



161 



No concealment is needed or any covering, but it is advisable to 

 secure the trap by a string to a peg. 



FIG. 99. COMMON RAT TRAP (ROUND-JAW PATTERN). 



(Supplied by Mr. H. LANE, Eagle Works, Wednesfield, Staffordshire.} 



The traps, Fig. 102, should be first placed on the strawberry-beds 

 and mainly on the outside rows, or round the plantation, as the " first 

 seen, first taken," and not more distantly apart than 9 feet. Thus 

 a gross of traps would be required for an acre, which (for the best 

 quality trap, always the most serviceable) entails an outlay of nearly 

 10. In these traps, seen to early and late, probably 3,000 birds 

 may be destroyed in a season, the traps being shifted from the 

 strawberry beds to under the currant, gooseberry and raspberry 

 bushes, then under apple, pear and plum trees, baiting in each 

 case with the respective fruits. Of course, the traps act equally 

 well for blackbirds as thrushes, which are more prone to continue 

 their depredations. 



In gardens thrushes and blackbirds are usually excluded from 

 cultivated fruits by netting, old, repaired, herring nets being gener- 

 ally employed.. Provided the netting be holeless and at such dis- 

 tance from the fruit that the birds cannot peck it, no harm ensues. 

 But we have found that herring net placed on strawberry-beds with- 



B.N. 



M 



