ctofcer 



LVI 



THERE can be no true lover of nature no sportsman 

 in the right sense of the term whose heart Trap 

 has not bled for the suffering inflicted upon reform 

 wild creatures by traps. Of all the sights which one 

 encounters in a woodland walk, there is none more 

 pitiable than that of a rabbit writhing in anguish, with 

 crushed limb and bleeding flesh, in the jaws of an iron 

 trap, or crouching low in the terror that overpowers 

 all other torment. Trapping is a dire necessity: it 

 is the only permanently effective way of keeping 

 rabbits within reasonable numbers. Snaring with wire 

 nooses is more merciful, for the creature is generally 

 throttled outright, and it answers very well for a while ; 

 but after a few days it scares the rabbits from their 

 runs, and the game is up. The invention of a painless 

 trap has long been the dream of many owners of game 

 preserves; and Colonel Coulson of Newbrough, Four- 

 stones-on-Tyne, has sent me a sample of one, invented 

 by himself, which goes a long way to realise what is 

 desired. This trap is the same in every respect as the 

 ordinary one, save that it has no teeth. Instead of 



