104 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



site nearby. Small round steel traps set upon top of poles 

 by breeding-pens, rearing-fields, or other open places are 

 very effective. No bait is required. These should not be 

 set in summer, as they will then catch useful small birds. 

 Wind the jaws with cloth or rubber, so as not to break the 

 legs of birds caught. Hawks that are persistent in summer 

 are quite sure to be nesting in the vicinity. The nests are 

 platforms of sticks in tall trees in the woods. If these are 

 hunted out and destroyed, the disturbers will usually depart. 



Box Trap. Where there are wire fences, vermin will 

 usually follow the wire, trying to enter. Where ducks are 

 kept, which do not get out, steel traps can be set just outside 

 the wire. This will not do where there are gallinaceous birds 

 which fly out and try to get back. In this case box-trap ar- 

 rangements are best. Evans and Rogers both use a similar 

 device, the principle of which Evans invented. The follow- 

 ing is the model used by Rogers: The trap is rectangular 

 in shape, a frame covered with wire. One end is occupied 

 by a drop door, sliding up and down in metal grooves. 

 About the middle of the trap inside, extending nearly across, 

 is a metal sheet, about 6 to 8 inches wide, which is hinged at 

 the bottom. A piece of stout wire attached to the upper 

 edge of this, in the middle, is cut just long enough so that 

 when this sheet or pan is raised, sloping back at an angle of 

 about 30, the wire will just reach up to block the bottom 

 of the door when fully raised. If anything enters and steps 

 on the pan, forcing it down, this will pull the end of the wire 

 out from under the door, which will then drop and imprison 

 the creature. Escaped birds can be caught with this as well 

 as vermin. 



Another. The model in use on the Evans' Game Farm is 

 similar to the above, except that when the intruder steps 

 on the pan, instead of pulling the wire directly from the door, 



