ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



19 



I * ' '"-. " :■ 



mtmtk.' 



Photo by William I. Lyon 



AN IMPROVED "SPARROW TRAP" 



finds it is captured, it 

 nearly always flies up 

 against the top of the cage 

 and after fluttering around 

 a while lights on the up- 

 per slope of the funnel at 

 A. This being flatter than 

 in the old styles of traps 

 gives a larger and better 

 resting place. While rest- 

 ing here it can see through 

 the second funnel into the 

 rear compartment of the 

 trap. Once through the 

 second funnel it usually finds a resting place on the flat top of the funnel 

 at B and seldom escapes from the compartment. The old funnels ex- 

 tended to the top of the trap which made the slope much steeper and a 

 poor resting place. They also took up much more room inside of the trap. 

 Birds are not as frightened at being trapped as many would expect. 

 We had one bird that was taken out of the trap six times on the day it was 

 first banded and this 

 same bird was in the trap 

 every day for twenty- one 

 days. When it was first 

 caught we noticed that 

 its scalp was torn and 

 the tail gone. It had 

 evidently barely escaped 

 from a cat's embrace. 

 During the twenty-one 

 days its scalp healed and 

 a new tail grew to 

 full length. Many other 

 birds fed in the trap 

 without being caught as 



we did not make the funnels small. W r e were after robins and the larger 

 funnels gave the small birds a chance to go in and out. 



Making of traps offers a chance to study each kind of bird and build a 

 trap to conform to its particular habits. This winter we have experimented 

 with traps for woodpeckers and were successful in catching two Downy 

 Woodpeckers, and a Chickadee. We have tw T o more traps for the sides 

 of trees but they were made so late that there has not been time enough to 

 prove their real value'. We have still another idea in traps to try out and 

 that is to put them on halyards and hoist them up into the tops of the 

 trees to try for birds that do not feed freely on the ground. 



Traps should always be in a permanent place that can be maintained 

 for three or more years as only continuous work will get "returns." The 

 position of the trapping station should be, for best results with migratory 

 birds, along a lake shore, rivers or creeks, or a line of trees or hills, as birds 

 follow r these in their flights. Our own place is on the bluff overlooking Lake 



Phoio by William I. Lyon 



WAITING THEIR TURN 



