452 Practical Game Preserving. 



the wrong direction, then one or more traps, according 

 to circumstances, may be disposed convenient for the bird's 

 discomfiture should it unwittingly seek it. 



Another mode of employing eggs to considerable advan- 

 tage requires a little more care when arranging the 

 materials, but it is, however, very efficacious. It consists 

 in placing traps on the edges of small ponds, or at the 

 sides of streams where the bank shelves easily down to 

 the water. In this case, the stick inserted in the egg- 

 shell varies according to circumstances, and, in order to 

 make the lure as natural as possible, it is better, instead 

 of using any shells, to abstract the contents of half-a- 

 dozen eggs by making a hole in one side ; this done, fill 

 them with clay or mud of suitable softness, and having 

 washed them clean they are ready for use. Then proceed 

 to a conspicuous open place at the side of the water, 

 and fix up the egg so that it seems to float about nine 

 inches from the edge ; this done, fix up a second piece 

 of wood having a small Y f r k a t the top, about three 

 inches inward from the egg, upon which the trap must 

 be supported ; this completed to satisfaction, the stake of 

 the gin must be driven in as near the water as it will hold, 

 and, the trap having been tilled, it should be placed beneath 

 the plate on the forked stick. A thin piece of mossy turf 

 may now be obtained from somewhere near at hand, sufficient 

 in size to cover the chain and gin as far as the jaws, which 

 must be neatly concealed with grass and moss pulled 

 small. Most persons, when using this form of tilling, sub- 

 stitute for the ordinary length of chain a small linked 

 one, about two to three feet long, so that when the 



