326 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



In the spring time, the best way of trapping 

 hawks is to set five or six traps in the old 

 nests of crows or magpies, or in squirrels' 

 drails or nests. The best time to set them is 

 in April, or the beginning of May. Another 

 method is to set a pole, the shape of a short 

 scaffold pole, in the rides of a wood, placing 

 a trap on the top ; should the top of the pole 

 be too small to support a trap, nail a piece of 

 board on the top of the pole, and set your trap 

 on the board. In young plantations longer 

 poles will be necessary, but you set your traps 

 in the same way. 



Yet another plan is to make a kind of baby's 

 cradle near a tree. Drive two stakes into the 

 ground, about three feet from the tree, letting 

 about four feet remain above the surface, then 

 lay two other stakes across the top of the first 

 two connecting them with the tree, horizontally. 

 The two vertical stakes should be about a foot 

 apart. Make a kind of flooring, with lathes or 

 interwoven boughs, on the horizontal stakes, 

 place a thrush or blackbird's nest close up 

 against the tree, and set a trap in front of it on 



