CAPTURING DEER FOR SHIPMENT. 49 



around for a time seeking an easy entrance apparently (it is useless to try to 

 drive them in), and failing in that they finally jumped over or smashed through 

 the fence. When out they are very wild, but when they get in will come up 

 for feed and be as tame and unconcerned as before. 



As a culmination to the increasing wildness of his herd, Mr. Marsh 

 found that in capturing and crating deer which he sold for stocking- 

 purposes he lost a large per cent as a result of exhaustion from their 

 struggles. 01 Mr. Blagden relates a like experience in shipping live 

 deer to purchasers, but later he overcame the difficulty by an ingen- 

 ious trapping device. Charles C. Worthington uses a similar trap at 

 his Warren County (N. J.) preserve. 



In a recent letter to the Biological Survey, Mr. Worthington de- 

 scribes his deer trap as follows: 



As a demand exists for deer to be used for the restocking of state lands and 

 for establishing private preserves, I, several years ago, began experiments in 

 trapping them. It was well known that a wild deer caught in any small in- 

 closure of wire will kill himself in his efforts to escape, but believing that 

 he would not do this if the fence were made in such a way as to prevent his 

 seeing through it, I constructed an oblong trap, about 20 feet wide and 30 feet 

 deep, of boards 10 feet high, nailed closely together, so that nothing could be 

 seen through them. A board door of the same height apd running loosely in 

 vertical grooves was fitted to one end, and opposite td it a narrow board 

 passageway was built just high enough for a deer to enter and about 5 feet 

 long; at the outer extremity of this passageway was placed a similar sliding 

 door, big enough to close tightly the end of the passage. The main door is 

 held open by a wire that extends several hundred feet to a blind, where the 

 trapper stands concealed. When the snows are on the ground, this trap is 

 baited with tempting food, which the deer finally enter the trap to secure. 

 When it is found that they enter the trap without hesitation, a man stations 

 himself on watch, and at such time as a number of deer are inside, drops the 

 sliding door and imprisons them. They are left for a few hours until their 

 first fright is somewhat allayed. Then crates, just large enough to hold one 

 deer, and having only enough openings to supply sufficient ventilation, are 

 placed, one at a time, in front of the smaller sliding door at the end of the 

 passage. The crates are provided with a corresponding door. These being 

 raised, the deer are made to enter the crates one at a time, and so are secured. 

 The men, during this entire operation, remain concealed. 



This form of trap has proved effective and satisfactory in every way. There 

 have been caught in it during the last few years over 300 deer, which have been 

 transferred to various localities throughout the country with a death rate of 

 less than 4 per cent. The trapping operations have to be discontinued by the 

 middle of February, owing to the does being then so heavy with fawn that any 

 attempt to crate and transfer them is attended with too much risk. 



The game commissioners of Pennsylvania and New Jersey have purchased 

 numbers of these deer to be liberated in various parts of their respective States. 

 The experiment of restocking districts from which these animals disappeared 

 long ago has proven most successful and popular. 



a American Field, XXVII, 295, 1887. 



