290 TRAP-SHOOTING. 



wants of the sportsman, whether in the field or at the 

 trap ; who hrealt his dogs, carry his bag, or tend his 

 birds ; with their quaint wisdom and innate honesty, 

 — deserve more consideration than they receive : but 

 above all, in trap-shooting, are they a necessity, 

 and is their uprightness above price? An unfair 

 trapper may give one man strong birds, and another 

 weak ; may pull their wing-feathers, or keep some 

 without water or food, and thus almost decide a 

 contest beforehand. 



Their labor is excessive ; they have first to catch 

 the birds, and attend to their arrival at the place of 

 shooting early enough to meet the sportsmen ; and 

 then they have to run eighteen or twenty-one yards 

 over the uneven and often muddy ground for every 

 bird they place in the trap. Hence, in selecting a 

 place to shoot pigeons, it is desirable, by avoid- 

 ing sand or soft earth, to save the trapper ; under 

 the most favorable circumstance, he will soon be 

 exhaustedj and with every advantage, cannot trap 

 more than five hundred birds in a day. Two birds 

 are released, either together or successively, ere the 

 traps are replenished; the trapper, carrying two 

 birds, runs to the traps, sets one after the other, and 

 returns also on the run — for the marksman by this 

 time is at the score — and selects two more birds 

 from the box ; this labor, continued during the noon- 

 tide hours of a blazing day, is not over remunerated 

 by liberal pay and the surplus birds, that, unless 

 ■claimed by the shooter, fall by common consent to 

 the share of his hard-working assistant. 



