of using the springe for the capture of thrushes and such birds. The
springes being made, the snarer cuts as many twigs about eighteen
inches in length as he intends hanging springes. There are two methods
of hanging them--in one the twig is bent in the form of figure 6, the
tail end running through a slit cut in the upper part of the twig. The
other way is to sharpen a twig at both ends, and insert the points into
a stem of underwood, thus forming a bow, of which the stem forms the
string below the springe, and hanging from the lower part of the bow is
placed a small branch with three or four berries of the mountain-ash;
this is fixed to the bow by inserting the stalk into a slit in the wood.
The bird-catcher is provided with a basket, one compartment of which
holds his twigs, bent or straight, another his berries; his springes
being already attached to the twigs, he very rapidly drives his knife
into a lateral branch, and fixes them, taking care that the springe
hangs neatly in the middle of the bow, and that the lower part of
the springe is about three fingers’ breadth from the bottom. By this
arrangement the bird, alighting on the lower side of the bow, and
bending his neck to reach the berries below, places his head in the
noose, finding himself obstructed in his movements, attempts to fly
away, but the treacherous noose tightens around his neck, and he is
found by the sportsman hanging by the neck, a victim of misplaced
confidence.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
Another adaptation of the springe is shown at Fig. 9. It consists of
a wand of hazel, willow, or any other suitable wood, which is set in
the ground firmly. A short piece of string, hair, or gut connects it
with a cross piece of wood, and to this string also several (two or
more) horse-hair or gut springes are attached, set in precisely the
same manner as shown in Fig. 8. A in Fig. 9 is a piece of wood which
is so cut as to present an arm at right angles to the perpendicular.
This piece of wood is driven in the ground and the wand bent over;
the cross-piece is now placed to the edge of the arm of A, and there
retained as “ticklishly” as possible.
On this fine setting everything depends. Now get some short grass and
cover up the cross-piece at A, so that it cannot be seen, then arrange
your hair springes on the surface, and strew some crumbs or grains of
rice, wheat, etc. The bird will settle on the cross-piece or on A, and
peck at the crumbs, etc., and then will be caught by the legs or head.
I have had excellent results with this.
Another springle shown at Fig. 10 is a remarkably good one for
moorhens, or, in fact, any bird having a run, for the description of
which quote “Practical Trapping,” by Moorman (though, indeed, I believe
he got his description from Doucie’s “Rural Sports”). “The wand, or
spring-stick,” he says, “cross-piece and nooses as before, but instead
of the simple crutch use a complete bow with both ends stuck in the
ground. At some distance from this drive in a straight piece of stick;
next procure a piece of stick with a complete fork or crutch at one
end. To set it draw down the spring-stick and pull the cross-piece
under the bow by the top side farthest from the spring-stick. Now hold
it firmly with one hand while you place the forked stick with its
crutch pressing against the opposite upright stick and bring its free
end against the lower end of the cross-piece, and adjust as firmly as
you can. Finally arrange the nooses in such a manner that if one of
them or the crutched stick is touched the latter falls, and releasing
the cross-piece the spring-stick flies up and the bird with it.” (A)
indicates the cross-piece, (B) the forked stick, (C) the adjustment.
(Fig. 10).
[Illustration: Fig. 10.]
IX. BIRD-CATCHING WITH TRAPS, ETC.
Yet another of the springle traps which I have seen used with very
great success for the capture of flesh-eating birds is shown in Fig.
11. A and B are two sapling oak or ash-trees, growing near each other.
Two holes are bored in A with a large gimlet; at C, in B, a wire loop
is attached, and the loop E is passed through the upper perforation,
as shown. At D a piece of cord with a round knot in it is passed
through after B is bent toward A. F is a piece of wood, the point of
which is shaped like a blunt cone, and this is sustained on the knot
in the position shown by the spring of B, being similar, in fact, to
the tongue of a wooden mole-trap, shown in a previous number. On this
piece of wood is tied a fresh lump of meat, or a pigeon’s egg may be
blown and stuck on. Indeed, any bait may be used, providing it is not
too heavy. The bird, of course, pecks strongly at it through the loop
E, and is instantly caught, or if it attempts to alight, which is often
the case, the noose catches it alive by the legs. My drawing is a rough
one, but sufficiently explains what is meant.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.]
I have thus given a brief sketch of what boys can do in bird-catching
with no more expense than a few cents--if we except the net, and that
need not cost much if one is disposed to make it. There are many other
traps which are variously successful. There is, for example, the
trap-cage, which contains on one side a decoy bird, and a very useful
one it is, and easily procured from a bird-fancier. Then there is the
old sieve and string and brick trap, about which no boy needs to be
told. I have taken twenty and thirty wild fowl in a night by baiting
with pieces of sheep’s lights or lungs a large eel-hook. Then again for
kingfishers there is a round spring-trap, which catches them by the
legs, and is cruel therefore. Herons may be taken on a baited hook--the
bait-fish, of course. When all is said and done, however, for general
bird-catching, where sport and not torture is the means here set forth
are decidedly the most satisfactory.
First and foremost, however, if you would be successful, take this
practical counsel to yourself. Study the natures and habits of the
birds; the droppings and footprints will always indicate a favorite
resort. Why, I took a dozen birds the other day with half a dozen of
Figure 9 traps in less than four hours by simply setting and resetting
in the right places, and then retiring out of sight.
And not merely out of sight, let me tell the tyro, but out of the
range of the sense of smell. Never get to windward of any birds if
you are intent on catching them. It is a curious fact amongst the
lower animals, especially those brought under domestication, that they
perceive and appreciate at its value against themselves the presence
of man by smell as well as sight. Creatures of prey, from the hatred
with which they are held, seem to possess this faculty in the highest
degree. Were it not so, indeed, the struggle for existence with them
would soon end, and many at least of the species--whether fish, flesh
or fowl--would become extinct as the dodo.
The bird-lime itself is the next consideration under this heading. I do
not advise any boy to make it himself, but if he nevertheless chooses
to do so, here is a recipe which will produce a very good “lime.” Half
a pint of Linseed-oil should be put into an iron pot and carefully
boiled over the fire for four hours, or, in fact, till it thickens
sufficiently, stirring it repeatedly the while with a stick. The oil is
smooth when it boils. In order to ascertain when it is done take out
the stick and immerse it in water, after which see if it sticks to the
fingers. If it does, the oil is ready to be poured into cold water,
and thereafter placed in little flat tin boxes--the most convenient
receptacles, as they fit in the waistcoat pocket, and can be used as
required.
Birdlime is also made from holly bark, but according to the directions
given in the “Encyclopædia Britannica” the process is much too
troublesome for boys, and as one can buy birdlime enough to stick
a flock of rooks together for a few pence from a professional
bird-catcher, life may be considered too short for that process at
this time. As I am some distance from a town, much less a professional
bird-catcher, I make mine as above, and find it little if any inferior
to that I have been in the habit of buying.
During winter time, when frost and snow cover the earth, birdlime is
very useful, for at that time the “clap” net is of very little use. A
good plan then is to sweep a bare place anywhere near a plantation or
wooded garden, or even in the farm-yards, and having anointed a few
dozen wheat ears with the straw attached--or rather, having anointed
the straw for about a foot nearest the ear--to spread them about in the
patch. The birds will attempt to take the ears away, and will so get
limed and drop to the ground. You must very quickly pick them up or you
will lose some, as their struggles not infrequently release them, at
least partially, and they flutter out of reach.
Sometimes it will be found that a few handfuls of oats, barley or
wheat thrown down where the limed straws are will be of service when
they do not seem to care for the wheat ears themselves. There is the
probability of the little fellows coming in contact with the ears, and
so getting limed. These methods are chiefly applicable, as I have said,
to cold weather.
A different mode of procedure may be practiced when the weather is
very hot. Cut, say, a hundred twigs of some smooth, thin wood, such as
withy, and after liming, stick them down by the side of any rivulet of
water near woody growths, and of course not near a large tract of water
such as a lake or river. Cover over the stream with brush or fern, so
that the birds can come only by where your limed twigs are placed. I
have had remarkable sport in this way when the birds have been coming
to drink during the forenoon and afternoon.
I tried an experiment for rooks with bird-lime some little time ago. We
all know that in winter, during a thaw, rooks will frequent pastures
in great numbers, especially if cattle be present. About fifty yards
to the west of where I am now sitting is a long waterside pasture,
and thousands of rooks could be seen digging right lustily. Rooks are
too strong and wily to be limed in the usual way with bristles or
twigs, so I made some paper cones--funnel-shaped, you know, like the
grocers use for packing sugar--and anointed the inside with bird-lime,
sticking also a few grains of wheat round the inner side. The result
was ridiculous in the extreme. After scattering a few grains of corn
about and placing about a dozen of these limed brown-paper funnels
in a likely manner, I retired to a distance, and with my field-glass
watched. A flock soon found out the scattered grain, and one after the
other the cones were inspected, but for some time no one ventured to
do more. Presently, however, after the loose grain was apparently all
eaten, one of the wily birds had the temerity to poke his head inside a
cone. The result was much to his evident surprise, for the cone stuck
tight, and there he was tumbling and attempting to fly with a foolscap
on which blindfolded him, and which stuck tight enough to allow me
time to go up and release the poor fellow. I did not kill him, for
old rook pie is by no means palatable. I tried this plan for a heron
which continually frequented a little pond wherein my last year’s trout
are kept, but did not succeed in capturing him, though he took both
the cone and fish used for a bait away somehow. Anyhow it has most
thoroughly frightened my gentleman, for I have not seen him since.
One fine morning some time since I had a delightful ramble with a
quaint old character living hereabouts who gets his living by mole
and bird catching. Old “Twiddle” he is familiarly called. One faculty
he has, and that is a natural love for nature’s works and a gift of
observation which has, perhaps almost unknown to himself, forced him
into being a natural naturalist, if I may so use the expression.
He can tell any bird on the wing by its flight, he knows all the
fancies--some of them old, imagined fancies--of bees, each fly as it
flits from the water’s edge has a name, though far from being that
given it by science. No matter for that; a rose by any other name would
smell as sweet and old Twiddle can tell something of its life-history.
Well, Twiddle and I started on our ramble, and this was how he was
equipped. A cage containing a beautiful little cock gold-finch duly
and comfortably furnished with food and water, and protected from the
sharp though clear air of the bright November day by means of an old
silk handkerchief. Some dozen or two of prepared bristles, a small box
of birdlime, and a “dummy” or stuffed gold-finch set up on a branch of
wood with one end sharpened so that the latter could be stuck in the
ground and then the bird retained in any position deemed desirable.
The bristles were of the best shoemaker’s kind, and, were arranged in
bunches of three on a stout carpet-needle.
By the by I have improved on these by substituting a fish-hook
straightened (see Fig. 6). To do this take an ordinary eel-hook and
make it red-hot in the gas or candle flame, holding it the while by
means of a pair of pliers. It can be readily straightened after this,
whether hot or cold, as the heating softens the wire. The utility of
the barb lies in the fact that the bird cannot by any chance fly away
with the bristle or lose it for you in its struggles, because of the
barb’s holding power when thrust into the branch of a tree, etc.
But to return. Chatting about this and that we journeyed along till
after old Twiddle had craned his neck over a ledge to regard the
other side of a field he announced our walk for the present ended.
On creeping through a hole in the hedge this field turned out to be
a piece of evidently waste water meadow, so-called because the crops
are, as it were, manured with water from the neighboring river, and
a perfect little forest of thistles with their downy heads swaying
in the breeze indicated the probable presence of the goldfinch. Some
thorn-trees grew in a row down the center of the field, and hither and
thither the sparrows flitted amongst their branches busily chattering
the news of sparrowdom. But I saw no finches. “Twiddle,” said I, “where
are the goldfinches?” “Ye’ll see where they be, sir, presently,” he
answered, setting down the caged bird near the largest of the thorns.
“Now, Billy,” he added, speaking to the bird, “crow away,” and with
that he removed the handkerchief. Billy needed no second bidding, and
his little throat quivered and trembled with the glad song which came
thrilling forth.
Twiddle now placed the dummy bird just beneath a branch of the thorn
close to the cage and so as to be easily seen, and all around it and
round the cage the bristles carefully limed were stuck. All was now
ready. We retired behind the hedge where we could see and not be seen.
Presently the singing was answered and we saw a gold-finch hopping
about amongst the branches of the thorn. Suddenly it caught sight of
the dummy bird and with a pleased swiftness flew towards it. In another
second it had touched a limed bristle and was rolling over and over
hopelessly liming its wings with every fresh bristle it touched.
Very carefully the little chap was dusted with a little fine earth
to mitigate the stickiness and placed in another cage which the
bird-catcher always carries for the wild birds. It is flat and long and
well supplied with food and water; in the upper part of it is a hole
sufficiently large to admit the hand, and to the two edges of this hole
is tacked the leg of an old stocking, which falls inwards. Then the
bird can easily be placed inside, but cannot escape, because the folds
of the stocking fold together.
We caught five there and, as the market value of the birds was about
twenty-five cents, Twiddle, it must be owned, had a very profitable
morning’s work. Let me express a hope that my readers may be so
successful.
* * * * *
The Art of Stretching and Curing Skins.
The market value of skins are greatly affected by the care used in
skinning and curing. We take the following from The Trapper’s Guide,
the best known authority on these matters:
In drying skins it is important that they should be stretched tight
like a strained drum head. This can be done after a fashion by simply
nailing them flat on a wide board or a barn door. But this method,
besides being impracticable on a large scale in the woods (where most
skins have to be cured) is objectionable, because it exposes only one
side of the pelt to the air. The stretchers that are generally approved
and used by good trappers, are of three kinds, adapted to the skins of
different classes of animals, and shall call them the board-stretcher,
the bow-stretcher, and the hoop-stretcher, and will describe them,
indicating the different animals to which each is adapted.
* * * * *
THE BOARD-STRETCHER.--This contrivance is made in the following manner:
Prepare a board of bass-wood or other light material, two feet three
inches long, three inches and a half wide at one end, and two inches
and an eighth at the other, and three-eighths of an inch thick. Chamfer
it from the center to the sides almost to an edge. Round and chamfer
the small end about an inch up on the sides. Split this board through
the center with a knife or saw. Finally, prepare a wedge of the same
length and thickness, one inch wide at the large end, and tapering
to three-eighths of an inch at the small end, to be driven between
the halves of the board. This is a stretcher suitable for a mink or a
marten. Two larger sizes, with similar proportions, are required for
the larger animals. The largest size, suitable for the full grown otter
or wolf, should be five feet and a half long, seven inches wide at the
large end when fully spread by the wedge, and six inches at the small
end. An intermediate size is required for the fisher, raccoon, fox, and
some other animals, the proportions of which can be easily figured out.
These stretchers require that the skin of the animal should not be
ripped through the belly, but should be stripped off whole. This is
done in the following manner: Commence with the knife at the hind feet,
and slit down to the vent. Cut around the vent, and strip the skin from
the bone of the tail with the help of the thumb nail or a split slick.
Make no other slits in the skin, except in the case of the otter, whose
tail requires to be split, spread, and tacked on to the board. Peel
the skin from the body by drawing it over itself, leaving the fur side
inward.
In this condition the skin should be drawn on to the split board, (with
the back on one side and the belly on the other) to its utmost length,
and fastened with tacks or by notches cut in the edge of the board, and
then the wedge should be driven between the two halves. Finally, make
all fast by a tack at the root of the tail, and another on the opposite
side. The skin is then stretched to its utmost capacity, as a boot-leg
is stretched by the shoe-maker’s “tree,” and it may be hung away in the
proper place, by a hole in one end of the stretcher, and left to dry.
A modification of this kind of stretcher, often used in curing the
skins of the muskrat and other small animals, is a simple board,
without split or wedge, three-sixteenths of an inch thick, twenty
inches long, six inches wide at the large end, and tapering to five and
a half inches at six inches from the small end, chamfered and rounded
as in the other cases. The animal should be skinned as before directed,
and the skin drawn tightly on to the board and fastened with about four
tacks. Sets of these boards, sufficient for a muskrat campaign, can
easily be made and transported. They are very light and take up but
little room in packing, thirty-two of them making but six inches in
thickness.
* * * * *
THE BOW STRETCHER.--The most common way of treating the muskrat is to
cut off its feet with a hatchet, and rip with a knife from between the
two teeth in the lower jaw, down the belly, about two inches below
where the fore-legs come out. Then the skin is started by cutting
around the lips, eyes, and ears, and is stripped over the body with
the fur side inward. Finally a stick of birch, water-beech, ironwood,
hickory, or elm, an inch in diameter at the butt, and three feet and a
half long, is bent into the shape of an oxbow and shoved into the skin,
which is drawn tight, and fastened by splitting down a sliver in the
bow and drawing the skin of the lip into it.
This method is too common to be easily abolished, and is tolerable when
circumstances make it necessary; but the former method of stretching
by a tapering board, in the case of muskrats as well as other small
animals, is much the best. Skins treated in that way keep their proper
shape, and pack better than those stretched on bows, and in the long
run boards are more economical than bows, as a set of them can be used
many times, and will last several years, whereas bows are seldom used
more than once, being generally broken in taking out.
* * * * *
THE HOOP STRETCHER.--The skins of large animals, such as the beaver and
the bear, are best dried by spreading them, at full size, in a hoop.
For this purpose, a stick of hickory or other flexible wood should be
cut, long enough to entirely surround the skin when bent. (If a single
stick long enough is not at hand, two smaller ones can be spliced
together.) The ends should be brought around, lapped, and tied with a
string or a withe of bark. The skin should be taken from the animal by
ripping from the lower front teeth to the vent, and peeling around the
lips, eyes, and ears, but without ripping up the legs. It should then
be placed inside the hoop and fastened at opposite sides, with twine
or bark, till all loose parts are taken up, and the whole stretched so
that it is nearly round and as tight as a drum-head. When it is dry it
may be taken from the hoop, and is ready for packing and transportation.
This is the proper method of treating the skin of the deer. Some prefer
it for the wolf and raccoon. In many cases the trapper may take his
choice between the hoop and the board method. One or the other methods
will be found satisfactory for curing all kinds of skins.
Dressing and Tanning Skins and Furs.
* * * * *
DRESSING SKINS WITH FUR WOOL ON.--The cheapest and readiest as well as
the best method of dressing skins for use with the hair or wool on, is
to first scrape off all the fat with a knife rather blunt on the edge,
so as not to cut holes into the hide, upon a round smooth log. The log
for convenience sake should have a couple of legs in one end, like a
tressle; the other end should rest upon the ground.
After the fat is well cleaned off, take the brains of the animal, or
the brains of any other recently killed, and work them thoroughly
into the hide. This renders the hide pliable. Then to preserve from
the ravages of insects scatter on it some powdered alum and a little
saltpeter. If the hair side has become greasy, a little weak lye will
take it out. Sheep-skins may be dressed in the same way, though the
wool should be cleaned with soapsuds before using the brains. Another
way, but more expensive, is to use a paste made of the yolk of eggs and
whiting instead of brains, working it in the same way, letting it dry
and brushing off the whiting. Then add the powdered alum as before.
Deer-skins and even small calf-skins are often tawed as the process
is called with the hair on for garments. If it is desired to give the
deer-skin a yellow color, yellow ocher or chrome yellow may be used in
combination with the brains or yolks of eggs and afterwards brushed off.
If it is simply desired to preserve skins until they are sold, it is
only necessary to dry them thoroughly. If the weather should be damp
and warm, salt the flesh side slightly with fine salt.
* * * * *