178 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



strike the nests of the pigeons." Ata was " a little bark or dry 

 wood to serve for torches in the hunt for pigeons during the night." 

 Not 50 years ago the Onondagas fastened pieces of hickory bark 

 on long poles, lit them, and poked down pigeon nests by the light. 

 There are vivid accounts of these scenes. 



Snares and traps were common ; and the Onondagas call all those 

 for game, ki-yen'-ton. Bruyas gives agarion, " to make traps for 

 hares ;" askoton, " to make traps for beaver, bear, etc." These are 

 Mohawk words. Roger Williams gives some of the Algonquin, as 

 ape' hana, trap or traps ; wuskape'hana, new traps, etc. He says : 

 " They hunt by Traps of severall sorts. . . Each man takes 

 his bounds of two, three, or foure miles, where hee sets thirty, forty, 

 or fiftie Traps, and baits his Traps with that food the Deere loves, 

 and once in two dayes he walks his round to view his Traps." 

 Williams, ch.27 



Sometimes a wolf devoured the deer. " Upon this the Indian 

 makes a falling trap called Sunnuckhig, (with a great weight of 

 stones) and so sometimes knocks the wolf on the head." 



In Turner's Holland Purchase mention is made that the Senecas 

 caught wolves in pits, hanging a bait over them from a sapling. 

 This seems doubtful with so agile an animal, but is a pioneer's 

 story. The true account is probably that given by the Onondagas. 

 They bent over saplings with baited nooses attached and also made 

 deadfalls of loaded logs. 



In one of Champlain's pictures a wolf and deer appear thus 

 caught, hanging in the air. Mr Morgan speaks of the same thing, 

 and mentions other devices : 



Nets of bark twine were also spread for pigeons and quails. A 

 simple bird trap for small birds consists of a rounding strip of elm 

 bark about 8 inches long by 4 wide, with an eye cut in one end and 

 a piece of bark twine with a noose at the end of it, attached to the 

 other. After the bark is secured upon the ground, a few kernels 

 of corn are dropped through the eye upon the ground, and a noose 

 adjusted around it. When a bird attempts to pick up the corn the 

 ruffled plumage of the neck takes up the string, and brings the 

 noose around the neck, which is tightened the moment the bird 

 attempts to fly. Morgan, 2 : 24 



