The Society for the Protection of Birds. 
THE POLE TRAP. 
JN July, 1898, the Society for the Protection of Birds issued an 
4 appeal to game preservers on the subject of the preservation of 
wild birds, in which special attention was called to the barbarity of 
the pole trap, and the indiscriminate destruction of valuable and 
harmless birds resulting from its use. 
This appeal has been sent to a large proportion of the landowners 
in England and Wales, and to all owners and tenants of shooting in 
Scotland. A considerable number of replies have been received, and 
letters are still coming m from all parts of the country. Prom those 
already received, it would appear that on several large estates the 
pole trap is greatly disliked by the proprietors themselves, and its 
erection forbidden. Many landowners would be glad to see its total 
abolition, but it must be borne in mind that there are keepers who 
will use the pole trap in defiance of their' employer’s wishes. An 
abstract of the letters received in answer to the above-mentioned appeal 
will be printed by the Society, and, it is to be hoped that, now public 
opinion has once more been directed to the subject by the correspon¬ 
dence in The Standard, some practical steps will be taken towards 
the abolition of this cruel instrument, and that eventually its use will 
become illegal. 
M. L. LEMON, Hon. Sec., 
October, 1898. Society for the Protection of Birds. 
The following letters on this subject appeared in The Standard, 
1898:— 
TIIE DETESTABLE POLE TRAP. 
To the Editor of “ The Standard.” 
Sir,—I n walking over one of the Surrey Downs yesterday I found a pole 
trap, mounted upon a short pole ; round, it were the remains of two white 
owls, two cuckoos, a missel thrush, and a jackdaw. I told the tenant of the 
estate about it, and he promised to bring it before the owner, whose keeper 
set it, presumably against his employer’s wish. No doubt the discussion 
which took place last March in your columns was instrumental in putting 
down many of these abominations. 
A Yorkshire keeper lately wrote to the Field :—“When I was on the moors 
I had to attend to pole traps ; all I got were numerous cuckoos, several 
owls and kestrels, a few jackdaws, one snipe, many ring-ousels and starlings, 
no sparrow-hawks.” 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
October igtk. W. H. TUCK. 
Sir,—I am very glad to find public attention again directed to the use 
(with a view to its abolition) of this instrument of atrocious cruelty and 
wanton destruction among birds, by the letter of Mr. W. H. Tuck, which 
appears in The Standard of to-day. 
I also have found the pole trap in use on the downs and hills in some parts 
of Surrey. I do not know, of course, to what part of the county Mr. Tuck alludes 
in his letter, but it may be that he and I have met with this “abomination,” 
