64 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



ought to make it in an hour. It is formed as follows : get a 

 piece of iron gas-pipe, three inches long and three-quarters 

 bore. At the threaded end make a plug of iron a quarter of 

 an inch thick, and tapped in the centre for a nipple. Drive 

 this plug into the barrel, and hraze it. The nipple is then 

 screwed in. Then get a corresponding piece of the gas-pipe, 

 from two feet six inches to three feet long, also threaded at 

 the end. Screw the collar (that always goes along with this 

 sort of gas-pipe) on to the long piece as tight as it. will go. 

 The gun is now complete with the exception of the ha&imer, 

 which is a piece of round iron about a foot long^ and slipping 

 easily down the barrel. To set the gun you must tie the long 

 barrel fast to the stem of a tree in the plantation, with the 

 short barrel downwards. Unscrew the latter and load it with 

 a couple of charges of powder, and put on the cap, which you 

 should cover with some beeswax and suet mixed. Then screw 

 the short barrel into the long one. Drill a small hole through 

 the loose piece of iron about four inches from one end, and 

 put it in the barrel with a nail or peg in the small hole, and 

 a string from the nail going down the_ side of the tree in the 

 direction you may choose. Mind and not have the wire so 

 low that a dog can let it off. When the wire is touched it 

 draws the nail, and the hammer, falling down on the barrel, 

 lets the cap off. Being fastened up in a tree, and close to the 

 stem, it can catch the eye of no one, and merely has to be 

 shifted occasionally, though of course there is no need to do 

 this until after it has been fired. After all, nothing daunts 

 poachers so much as pit-falls made in the woods. They 

 should be about seven feet deep, and made with the sides 

 slanting, so that the chamber is larger at the bottom than at 

 the top. Unless boarded all round, the soil will fall in. The 

 opening should be four feet square, and be covered with 

 sticks and sods, or anything resembling the surrounding 

 ground. Poachers are very shy of venturing into woods 

 where you have these pit-falls." 



Alarm guns discharging wooden or other plugs upwards 



