Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/250

scale and set on logs or trees that have fallen across a watercourse and are used as a bridge by minks, 'coons, or other animals. The forked sticks supporting the end of the plank must in this case be driven into the bed of the creek, and a plank twenty feet long substituted for the short one used in the trap designed for squirrels.

To be a successful trapper a boy must be a keen observer of the habits of the game; by this means he will soon learn to take advantage of the very means designed by Nature as a protection for her creatures. For instance, the partridges are not good flyers, but their unobtrusive coats mingle and blend so closely with the stubble as to take a sharp eye to detect their presence; hence we find that these birds are loth to take to the wing, but will run along any slight obstruction they meet, poking their heads about to find an outlet, apparently never once thinking of surmounting both the difficulty and the obstruction by using their wings. The "down East" Yankee boys are thoroughly acquainted with the habits of the partridge, and catch a great many of them by building little hedges like the one in the illustration entitled

The snare in this case consists of a slip-noose made of string. Make a bow-line knot (Fig. 58, diagram XIII., described on page 76) in one end of a piece of common string or fish line; slip the other end of the string through the loop and make the free end fast to the top of an arch made of a bent stick (see Fig. 141). In a semi-circular form, around some feeding ground, build a low fence of sticks, brush or stones, leaving openings at intervals only large enough to fit in arched gateways. Make an arch for each opening and arrange a slip-noose in each archway; spread the loops apart and keep them in this position by catching the strings slightly into notches made upon the outside of