The Zoologist — April, 18G7. 657 



A. Rod like a mole-trap stick. 



B. Short piece of stick. 



C. Forked stick with one end 

 passed through the other. 



Straight stick. 

 Bent stick. 

 Hair-snare. 



A, by pulling on B, presses it against the forked stick C, which in 

 turn is pressed against the upright stick D, and this keeps it all in 

 place. But on a bird stepping on the forked stick C, the weight of' 

 the bird loosens its hold, and the long stick A flies up, catching the 

 victim in the snare, which is laid flat on the forked stick C. 



" If the springe hold, the cock's mine." 



Winter's Tale, Act iv. Scene 3. 



Mr. Knox, in his ' Game Birds and Wildfowl,' has described a very 

 similar trap, and his description is so animated, while at the same time 

 so instructive, that we are tempted to overlook the similarity and quote 

 his words : 



" We soon found many tracks of the woodcock on the black mud ; 

 and on one spot these, as well as the borings of his beak, were very 

 numerous. Here my companion halted, and pulling out his knife, cut 

 down a tall willow rod, which he stuck firmly into the ground in nearly 

 an upright position, or perhaps rather inclining backwards. On the 

 opposite side of the run he fixed a peg, so as to project only a few 

 iuches above the surface ; to this he fastened a slight stick about a foot 

 long, attached loosely with a tough string, much as the swingel of a 

 flail is to its handstaff : another branch of willow was bent into au 

 arch, and both ends driven into the soft ground to a considerable 

 depth on the opposite side of the track, and nearer to the tall upright 

 wand. To the tip of the latter a string was now fastened, the end of 

 which was formed into a large running noose ; while, about half way 

 down, another piece of stick, about six inches long, was tied by its 

 middle. The flexible wand was then bent forcibly downwards, one 

 end of the little stick overhead was passed under the arch, while it was 

 retained in this position, aud at the same time the bow prevented from 

 springing upwards, by the other extremity being placed against a 

 notch at the end of the stick which had been fastened to the peg on 

 the other side of the run, across which it now lay, two or three inches 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. II. S 



