290 TRAP-SHOOTING. 



wants of the sportsman, whether in the field or at the 

 trap ; who break his dogs, carry his bag, or tend his 

 birds ; with their quaint wisdom and innate honesty, 

 deserve more consideration than they receive : but 

 above all, in trap-shooting, are they a necessity, 

 and is their uprightness above price? An unfair 

 trapper may give one man strong birds, and another 

 weak ; may pull their wing-feathers, or keep some 

 without water or food, and thus almost decide a 

 contest beforehand. 



Their labor is excessive ; they have first to catch 

 the birds, and attend to their arrival at the place of 

 shooting early enough to meet the sportsmen ; and 

 then they have to run eighteen or twenty-one yards 

 over the uneven and often muddy ground for every 

 bird they place in the trap. Hence, in selecting a 

 place to shoot pigeons, it is desirable, by avoid- 

 ing sand or soft earth, to save the trapper ; under 

 the most favorable circumstance, he will soon be 

 exhausted, and with every advantage, cannot trap 

 more than five hundred birds in a day. Two birds 

 are released, either together or successively, ere the 

 traps are replenished ; the trapper, carrying two 

 birds, runs to the traps, sets one after the other, and 

 returns also on the run for the marksman by this 

 time is at the score and selects two more birds 

 from the box ; this labor, continued during the noon- 

 tide hours of a blazing day, is not over -remunerated 

 by liberal pay and the surplus birds, that, unless 

 claimed by the shooter, fall by common consent to 

 the share of his hard-working assistant. 



