To show how effedive this trap is, last February the 

 keeper in que^ion, having put the feed into No. 1 cage, 

 which was put near the feeding place in a small covert, 

 went off to visit a second trap which he had placed in 

 another covert about a mile off. On his return, perhaps an 

 hour later, he found in No. 1 trap four hen pheasants and 

 forty-seven jackdaws. Having caught the pheasants in 

 a small landing net and put them in a place of safety, he 

 caught the jackdaws and knocked them on the head. 



His catch with two traps going during the month of 

 February was thirty hen pheasants, about one hundred 

 and eighty jackdaws, over one hundred rooks and five 

 carrion crows. 



Later on in the season he placed one of these traps out- 

 side the rearing field and he caught several more jackdaws. 



The largest catch made during the season was 

 sixty-seven jackdaws and rooks at one time ! 



Now, the jackdaws are the most inveterate egg stealers ; 

 so are the rooks, or some of them, whilst the carrion 

 crows are the worst offenders of all. 



Some people think that rooks are not egg stealers, but it 

 is an undoubted fad that, in this part of Lincolnshire at 

 any rate, certain old rooks have a great partiality for both 

 game eggs and the young pheasants and partridges and 

 chickens. 



It is quite a common sight on an early summer's 

 morning to see half-a-dozen jackdaws or rooks mobbing 

 a crowd of young chickens or pheasants, and the trap 

 will assist to keep the number of jackdaws within reason- 

 able bounds, and it will not take up too much of the 

 keeper's valuable time at that busy season. 



85 



