142 Edward's Traps. [CHAP. VIII. 
to accomplish much more than those who were engaged at 
heavier work. This, together with his practice of spending 
not a moment idly, was much in his favor. 
He also contrived to preserve his specimens during his 
meal hours, or in his idle times “betwixt pairs’ — while, 
as shoe-makers would say, they were “on the hing.” Dur- 
ing the long winter nights he arranged the objects preserved, 
and put them in their proper cases. In order the better to 
accomplish this work, he did not go to bed until a very late 
hour. As he was not able to afford both fire and light, he 
put out the lamp when engaged upon any thing that could 
be done without it, and continued his labors by the light of 
the fire. 
When forced to go to bed, he went at once, and, having 
slept at railway speed for an hour or an hour and a half, he 
was up again and at work upon his specimens. He felt 
as much refreshed, he said, by his sound sleep, as if he had 
slept the whole night. And yet during his sleep he must 
have had his mind fixed upon his work, otherwise he could 
not have wakened up at the precise time that he had pre- 
viously appointed. Besides stuffing his own birds, he also 
stuffed the birds which other people had sent him, for 
which he was paid. 
One of the objects which he had in view in making his 
“rounds” so frequently was to examine the traps he had 
set, in order to catch the beetles, grubs, and insects which 
he desired to collect. His traps were set with every im- 
aginable organic material —dead birds, rats, rabbits, or 
hedgehogs; dead fish, crabs, or sea-weed. He placed them 
everywhere but on the public roads—in fields and woods, 
both on the ground and hung on trees; in holes, in old 
dikes; in water, both fresh and stagnant. Some of these 
traps were visited daily, others once a week, while those set 
in water, marshy places, and in woods, were only visited 
once a month. He never ‘passed any dead animal without 
first searching it carefully, and then removing it to some 
Rss 
