34 



THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



Readers of the Bulletin do not need to be reminded of the im- 

 portance of the work Mr. Lyon and other enthusiasts in bird- 

 banding, as yet comparatively few in number in the United 

 States, are doing. It is of immediate consequence that compe- 

 tent volunteers to cooperate in the work be forthcoming. For 

 this part of the country Mr. Lyon has only two associates : one 

 at Hobart, Indiana, and one at Sault Ste Marie. He is anxious 

 to enlist workers between the latter place, and his home sta- 

 tion, Waukegan, and from Chicago southward to Cairo and the 

 Gulf. 



Supplementing the description of an improved "sparrow 

 trap," which Mr. Lyon gave to the last Bulletin, he now sends 

 memoranda of more recent experiences. He writes as follows: 



"When the birds 

 began to mate it 

 was apparent that 

 the self-acting traps 

 would soon have to 

 be abandoned, as 

 the traps could not 

 be watched all the 

 time and that would 

 keep the captured 

 birds away from 

 their mates or from 

 their nests when 

 built, so the number 

 of Sieve Traps or 

 Drop Traps, as 

 some may call 

 them, was increased. Details of our experiences with these 

 traps are here offered. 



"The^ original trap was just a box three feet square and four 

 inches deep with three quarter inch mesh wire netting on the top. 

 Two pegs were driven into the ground so that they would come 

 into the back corners of the trap and hold it securely in place 

 when the stick was pulled out from under the front to let the 

 trap drop on the ground. The front stick should not be over eight 

 to ten inches high. Then there was a door to drive the birds from 

 the trap into a small carrying cage. The wood sides did not give 

 the trapper a clear view into the trap and also kept the birds 

 from seeing inside. So another trap was made of the same 

 dimensions but all from wire. This was a good improvement 

 and caught more birds but it was soon apparent that it could 

 be improved. So next came a trap which was four feet square 

 and four inches deep and made entirely from wire, and it worked 

 much better as it covered more space. It appears in the ac- 

 companying illustration. From all these traps I run strings 

 up through the trees to a window in my house. The traps are 



