106 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



On the hillside above his swamp, near the Ministe- 

 rial land, I found myself walking in one of those shelf- 

 like hillside paths made by Indians, hunters, cows, or 

 what-not, and it was beset with fresh snares for par- 

 tridges. . . . Upright twigs are stuck in the ground 

 across the path, a foot or more in height and just close 

 enough together to turn a partridge aside, leaving a 

 space about four inches wide in the middle, and some 

 twigs are stretched across above to prevent the birds 

 hopping over. Then a sapling about an inch in diame- 

 ter or less is bent over, and the end caught under one 

 of the twigs which has a notch or projection on one 

 side, and a free-running noose, attached to the sapling, 

 hangs in the opening and is kept spread by being hung 

 on some very slight nicks in the two twigs. This seems 

 to suppose the bird to be going one way only, but per- 

 haps if it cannot escape one way it will turn and try to 

 go back, and so spring the trap. 



I saw one that was sprung with nothing in it, another 

 whose slip-noose was blown or fallen one side, and an- 

 other with a partridge still warm in it. It was a male 

 bird hanging dead by the neck, just touching its toes 

 to the ground. It had a collar or ruff about its neck, 

 of large and conspicuous black feathers with a green 

 reflection. This black is peculiar to the male, the fe- 

 male's being brown. Its feet, now clinched in its agony, 

 were the strangest-looking pale blue, with a fine fringe, 

 of scales or the like, on each side of each toe. The 

 small black feathers were centred with gray spots. The 

 scapulars were darker brown, dashed with large clear 

 pale-brown spots; the breast-feathers light with light- 



