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funnel openings were parallel to the shore line; the rope was attached to an 
object on the shore. Frogs and adult and larval salamanders were taken. 
The writer has had success in trapping both newts and salamander larvae with 
standard commercial minnow traps. The traps may be set unbaited, or raw 
meat or fish may be used as bait. 
For turtles, various models of funnel traps, usually called ‘hoop traps,’ 
have been designed and found to be very effective. 
Legler (1960) describes an excellent and simply constructed model: 
"Hoops are made from aluminium tubing. Tubing with a diameter of 1 inch and 
walls approximately inch thick has the most advantageous combination of light 
weight and necessary strength for hoops up to two feet in diameter. Heavier tubing 
must be used for larger hoops. Tubing can be bent into hoops by hand, using the top 
of a circular object (crock, paper basket, or any other round object of proper size) as a 
form. The form used should be several inches smaller than the desired diameter of the 
hoops, inasmuch as the inherent springiness of the tubing causes it to expand con- 
siderably after it is bent. Mechanical devices for bending tubing should be avoided 
because they tend to flatten the tubing. The open ends of the hoop are joined by a 
two-inch sleeve, cut from a piece of tubing with an inside diameter of j inch. The 
sleeve can be crimped with pliers to insure a tight fit. 
"The body of the trap, or bag, consists of a single piece of commercially made 
netting. Netting of f inch mesh (by square measurement, i.e., measured from knot 
to knot), made from No. 12 cotton twine, is sufficiently small and strong to retain most 
animals that will enter the trap. Four hoops are threaded into the rectangle of 
netting of the proper size (large enough to fit snugly around the hoops, to allow the 
hoops to be spaced at twelve-mesh intervals, and to allow for a throat 12 meshes deep on 
each end) and the free edges of the netting are woven together by a single piece of 
twine stretched between the end hoops; this seam is then reinforced by knots on 
alternate meshes. The free edges of the throats are similarly closed with knots, 
puckered to the desired size with a single piece of twine and reflected into the body of 
the trap. Netting should be treated with a preservative to prevent rotting from 
repeated wettings. It is most practical to purchase netting that has been treated and 
dried at the factory (copper napthanate is the substance most often used), the extra 
cost of this service is negligible when one considers the trouble involved in soaking 
large pieces of netting in a small workshop or laboratory. Twine used to join pieces of 
netting must also be treated with preservative. 
"Nets 19 inches in diameter, 33 inches long, and with a throat 12 inches deep on 
each end were found to be the most useful in collecting turtles. Nets as small as 12 
inches in diameter are of limited use and are expensive to make. Nets as large as four 
feet in diameter are useful if provision can be made to fit them (and their necessarily 
long stiffeners) into the small spaces ordinarily available for field gear. The opening 
of the throat in my nets is approximately 10 inches wide and 3 inches high when the 
nets are stretched into position for setting, but size of throat-opening can be varied 
simply by adjusting the length of the cord passing around the opening. It should be 
borne in mind that the width of the throat-opening will determine the maximum size 
of turtle that can enter the trap. The vertical diameter of the throat-opening expands 
as a turtle enters the trap; seemingly turtles are little hindered by having to push 
through this low opening. The throats are held open by two lines tied to the second 
hoop of the opposite end; lines from the two throats cross each other at the sides of the 
trap between the two centre hoops. 
"Traps are held open and rigid by stiffeners made from \ inch wooden doweling; 
metal screw-hooks on the ends of the stiffeners hook into the end hoops and hold the 
stiffeners in place. A useful modification of the stiffener described is to anchor a 
screw-hook at one end and to solder the other screw-hook to a copper sleeve fitting 
loosely over the wooden rod; this produces a friction sleeve which is held in plare as long 
as tension is exerted on the screw-hook and permits use of the same size of stiffener for 
traps that vary slightly in length (due either to shrinkage or to inconsistency of 
construction). Wooden stiffeners must be coated with paint, varnish, or lacquer to 
prevent soaking and subsequent warping. 
"A bait-holder, made from a square of * inch mesh hardware cloth is suspended 
from the inside of the net so that it hangs between the openings of the throats and just- 
above them. The bait-holder is simply folded around the bait. 
"The nets herein described can be set effectively in any suitable aquatic habitat 
having water deep enough (at least 10 inches) to cover the throats. My experience has 
