Winged Vermin Trapping Hawks. 497 



Brown Owl are invariably regarded by gamekeepers as 

 vermin ; but although occasionally they may err, their 

 general good behaviour and utility should suffice to pre- 

 serve them from destruction. 



The trapping of hawks is a considerably more difficult 

 matter than the capture of any of the various birds hitherto 

 discussed, and such being the case, it is necessary to 

 carefully note the details the observance of which leads 

 to success. The traps hitherto described are those most 

 suitable, and, with the exception of a newly-invented one, 

 presently to be mentioned, we know of no others. The 

 signs by which one can tell where to trap for hawks are 

 generally pretty apparent in the shape of mauled birds, 

 or the remains of such, which will be mostly met with on 

 the outside of, or along any paths through, a wood or 

 plantation ; should the bird discovered appear to be but 

 partly eaten, it may with advantage be employed as a 

 bait to one or two light vermin gins neatly set around it. 

 It will probably be observed that the sparrowhawk hunts 

 the same ground every day; and, that being the case, con- 

 siderable advantage is gained, as various baits can be 

 placed and tilled in positions where their observance by 

 the varmint is almost certain. Whenever a single tree 

 grows in the neighbourhood of a covert, or a particularly 

 high one within the plantation, one of its branches, thick 

 enough to take a hawk trap, should be cut off at a suitable 

 place, and one of these gins be countersunk on the top 

 and set. It is sure to prove very productive of captures, 

 while the same means recommended for magpies, of placing 

 poles round the outskirts of a covert and adorning their 



