Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
Full Title
How to make and set traps : Including hints on how to trap moles, weasels, otter, rats, squirrels and birds. Also how to cure skins / by J. Harrington Keene.
Author
Keene, J. Harrington.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1902
Publisher
New York : Frank Tousey
Series
Ten cent handbooks > no. 40
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Ten cent handbooks -- no. 40
Topic
Trapping > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hunting > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hides and skins > Handbooks, manuals, etc.
About
More Details Permanent Link
Disclaimers
Disclaimer of Liability Disclaimer of Endorsement
OCR
”
HOW TO MAKE AND SEY TRAPS, 39
I started 6n 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 ‘ dum-
my ” 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 hayé improved on these by substituting a tish-
hook. straightened (gee 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 cannotby 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, “fo,
- 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 jeld he announced our walk for
the present ended On creeping through a holein the hedge
this field turned out to be a piece of evidently waste water
meadow, so-called because the crops are, ag 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. ‘* Twiddie,” said I, ‘* where are the gold-
finches?” ‘* Ye’ll see where they be, sir, presently,” he an-
swered, setting down the caged bird near the largest of the
- thorns. ‘t 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 ail areund it and round the cage the bristles carefully
limed were stuck. All, was wow 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,