THE ZooLocist—JuLy, 1876. 4993 
me that the gulls were nesting as usual, and that a pair of fine 
peregrine falcons had taken up their quarters in their midst, as 
they did last year, flying round and making a great chatter on 
being disturbed. Rabbits are very plentiful in the district. 1 have 
heard that a pair or two of peregrines are breeding on the Cornish 
coast, that the eggs have been taken from one nest, and I am sorry 
to hear that it is intended to take the young from another. Many 
young ravens, too, have been captured. 
Redbacked Shrike.—I am glad to say—as the species had become 
scarce within the last few years—that several pairs of redbacked 
shrikes have been seen in the neighbourhood of Plymouth lately. 
F JOHN GATCOMBE. 
8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth. 
Steel Traps and Gins.—The usual method of catching rabbits is to place 
steel traps or gins at the entrance of their holes or runs. The trap is con- 
cealed with earth, grass or leaves, and the animal springs it by stepping on 
the pan. The jaws of the trap smash the leg-bones, cut through the flesh 
and skin, so that the animal is held by the sinews only, which are tough 
and strong. As the rabbit usually moves out at dusk, he generally gets 
into the trap at that time, and consequently remains in about twelve hours, 
supposing the traps are visited the next morning. During this time the 
animal suffers the agony of broken bones, lacerated flesh, besides the terror 
and thirst necessarily occasioned by such wounds. When trapping is carried 
on in March, April and May, hundreds of young rabbits die of starvation in 
consequence of the old does being caught. There is an idea that rabbits 
and such animals do not suffer acute pain; but anyone who has heard the 
screams of a rabbit or hare in a steel trap would not be inclined to believe 
this doctrine. For catching dogs, domestic cats, weasels, stoats, polecats, 
magpies, crows, jays, &c., the same instrument is used. A bait is so placed 
that the creature cannot get at it without passing over the trap. As in the 
ease of the rabbit and hare, the bone-breaking, flesh-lacerating process goes 
on, and the hours on hours of protracted torture, the torture in these cases 
being frequently of longer duration than in the case of rabbits: for the bodies 
of these victims are considered of no value, and it does not matter whether 
they die in the trap or not—consequently the trapper is not regular in his 
visits. It sometimes happens that the domestic cat will get into gins set 
for rabbits, and being a strong animal will drag away the gin, chain and 
peg for a considerable distance until arrested by the chain becoming 
entangled in stumps or brush. ‘Traps are lost in this manner, and months 
afterwards found with the skeleton of the cat. It is difficult to say how 
