138 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



Nooses of horsehair are also attached to twigs of low bushes or 

 frames set up for the purpose, across the path most likely to be 

 traversed by these armies ; and considerable numbers are taken in 

 this way. 



Great numbers of partridges, as well as pheasants, more pro- 

 perly speaking, ruffed grouse, are taken, by the aid of horsehair 

 nooses, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, more particularly in the 

 district of country adjoining our city ; and it is no unusual cir- 

 cumstance for sportsmen to come across long cords of several feet 

 in length, stretched from stake to stake, on the borders of some 

 favorite feeding-ground, hung with five, ten, fifteen, or twenty hair 

 nooses, and even many more, with corn, wheat, or other grain, 

 strewn about for the purpose of luring the poor victims into these 

 deceptive and fatal snares. The birds are most usually caught 

 around the neck, and thus strangled to death; but not unfre- 

 quently by the wing, and sometimes leg. Our dogs have often 

 come to a stand upon the poor victims thus entrapped, and we 

 never scruple to help ourselves to the spoils on such occasions. 



As the winter progresses and food becomes scarce, the common 

 figure-of-4 trap, constructed of laths, corn-stalks, or other suitable 

 material, comes into requisition by every idle farm-hand and lazy 

 negro boy, and thus again large numbers of these birds are merci- 

 lessly destroyed. It is no uncommon thing to take covey after 

 covey, in these rude traps, during severe weather, without allowing 

 one single member of the family to escape ; as these birds, more 

 than any others, are disposed to run in clutches, and are seen con- 

 stantly crossing and recrossing each other when feeding, and when 

 alarmed instinctively cluster together and follow blindly their 

 leader, no matter what course he adopts. As we cannot approve 

 of this wholesale slaughter of game, any more than we can justify 

 the robbing of their nests for the purpose of eating the eggs, as 

 is pursued to a considerable extent by the negroes in the slave- 

 holding States, and often with the full connivance of their masters, 

 we will not dwell longer upon the subject, or be more particular in 

 describing the method of making or setting these traps, which 



