Traps and Nooses. 21 



" Another less noisy method of taking the grouse 

 that was practised was by means of rat-traps. A 

 neighbouring farmer had thirty of these, so that he 

 had a better chance of getting game than my master, 

 who was not willing to buy more than the one he 

 had. It was found that when a bird went into the 

 trap, except when caught by the head, it made such 

 a fluttering that it frightened all the others away. It 

 was the same with shooting the first shot made the 

 whole flock take flight, and they seldom or never 

 returned till the afternoon or the morning, as the case 

 might be. 



" I saw that with more traps a greater part of the 

 field could be covered, so as to make pretty sure of 

 getting at least one bird night and morning. I had 

 been accustomed to catch such birds as sparrows and 

 blackbirds with a single horsehair, and thought that 

 the same plan would do for grouse if more hairs were 

 used. Accordingly I prepared a few snares, with six 

 hairs formed into a noose, attaching the hairs to a 

 card about six inches apart, and fixing the snares 

 over the stock of corn in the most likely way for the 

 birds to get into the loops. I found that this 

 answered much better than the rat-traps, besides being 

 of little or no cost and easily carried about. I soon 

 had ac> many as would cover that part of the field 

 that the birds were most wont to come in at. With 

 the new snare I was very successful, generally having 

 one bird each night and morning, but seldom more 

 for the reason above stated, that the fluttering of 

 the captured bird scared away all the rest. The 

 birds taken were sold to the egg-cadger, a person 



