332



W. H. Workman—A Good Cat Trap



wire sieve at the bottom, after which all that is necessary is to give

a good blow between the boxes and one gets rid of all the husks.


I have just read through these notes and it has struck me very

forcibly that I have written in a vein which appears to presuppose

a great superiority of knowledge on my part—the explanation is

that I am of a practical turn of mind and a bit of a carpenter to boot.


Next month I propose, if our editor allows it, to prove to my fellow

members that I am without exception the worst breeder of birds in

Great Britain, if not in the whole of Europe.



A GOOD CAT TRAP


By W. H. Workman


I wonder if aviculturists in England are as much bothered with

predatory cats as we are here round Belfast. One year I had a Teal

taken oh my small pond, but a B.S.A. 22 air-rifle settled accounts

next morning when she returned for the drake. Then the wretched

brutes would sit on the tops of the aviaries bouncing about and

frightening all the birds into a wild state of panic ; a gun was no use

here. Finally we had a hard frost, the pond got frozen solid, and in a

few days I lost four valuable ducks, not counting odd ones at other times.


A friend came to the rescue with his cat-trap and now peace reigns,

for we had little trouble in capturing four enormous semi-wild cats,

which we quietly despatched in a good deep pond. From that time

we have had no trouble ; we seem to have rid the country of these

murderers.


The trap which I am about to describe was made for me by Messrs.

John Rogers, Ltd., of 68 Victoria Street, Belfast, and it cost the small

sum of 18s. 6 d. As you will see from the photographs, it is a long oblong

box of square wire-mesh sitting on a galvanized sheet-iron floor—*

length 3 feet, breadth 1 foot, height 1 foot. You will see from the close-

up the door opens upwards and outwards with a spring at the top and

a long rod, which, when the door is closed, stands straight up (Fig. 1).

To set the trap this rod is pulled down and just caught in the trigger-

loop (Fig. 2), below which the bait is hung. The cat smells the bait,



