TRAPS AND TRAPPING. 413 



milder fate, for if any accident should happen to the two first 

 immolated, before the capture of the old birds, then those 

 saved must take their turns in beguiling their parents to de- 

 struction. The old ones are sure, when they hear the cry of 

 their young, to go down to their aid, and in walking round, 

 endeavouring to accomplish their release, they spring one 

 of the traps, and are irretrievably caught. This will succeed 

 to a certainty with all the winged vermin, and no keeper 

 who knows his business will suffer the eggs to be taken, 

 because in that case he loses his chance of getting rid of the 

 whole family at one swoop. 



Tlie birds which are ranged under the first list can some- 

 times be tempted by a live bait into an enclosure, made in 

 as natural a manner as possible, upon the principle last 

 described, setting the traps round in a similar manner. A tame 

 pigeon tied by the leg, and suffered to walk round a limited 

 circle, will attract the buzzard, the harriers, and sometimes 

 the sparrow-hawk, and by these means they may be taken 

 with one of a lot of traps, which must be thickly set outside 

 the bait. The raven and the crow are quite as fond of 

 dead flesh as living, and they may be caught with gins 

 planted just at the edge of a piece of flesh, or a dead lamb, and 

 securely fastened to a strong peg. An egg forms the best 

 bait for the hooded crow or the magpie, and it will generally 

 secure the attendance of either if fixed in a three-branched 

 stick, eight or nine inches from the ground, and surrounded 

 closely by steel traps. The jackdaw and the jay may be 

 taken in the same way. 



A good plan of trapping egg-destroyers is to set the trap in 

 water, so that it will drown them when caught, and thus 

 prevent them from alarming their own species and from 

 escaping with the loss of a leg. To do this, proceed as 

 follows: Take a hen's egg, blow it, and fill it with clay or 

 plaster of Paris, if it is to be had ; insert a piece of wood in 

 its side, sufficiently long to support it on a level with the 

 water's surface when stuck in the bottom at the distance of 

 the length of the trap from the water's edge ; make a bridge 

 of clay between the egg and the land, and on this set the 

 trap, and conceal it with moss. The raven, crow, &c., will 

 walk along this till they reach the egg, and inevitably spring 



