[Illustration]

[Page 37] [Illustration:  SNARES OR MOOSE TRAPS]

[Page 39] BOOK II.

SNARES OR MOOSE TRAPS.

[Illustration:  T]hese devices, although properly coming under the head of “traps,” differ from them in the sense in which they are generally understood.  A snare naturally implies an entanglement; and for this reason the term is applied to those contrivances which secure their victims by the aid of strings or nooses.  Inventions of this kind are among the most useful and successful to the professional Trapper, and their varieties are numerous.  The “Twitch-up” will be recognized as a familiar example by many of our country readers, who may have seen it during their rambles, cautiously set in the low underbrush, awaiting its prey, or perhaps holding aloft its misguided victim.

Snares are among the most interesting and ingenious of the trap kind, besides being the most sure and efficacious.  They possess one advantage over all other traps; they can be made in the woods, and out of the commonest material.

Let the young trapper supply himself with a small, sharp hatchet, and a stout, keen edged jack-knife,—­these being the only tools required.  He should also provide himself with a coil of fine brass “sucker wire,” or a quantity of horse-hair nooses (which will be described further on), a small ball of tough twine and a pocket full of bait, such as apples, corn, oats and the like, of course depending upon the game he intends to trap.  With these, his requirements are complete, and he has the material for a score of capital snares, which will do him much excellent service if properly constructed.  Perhaps the most common of the noose traps is the ordinary

QUAIL SNARE,

which forms the subject of our first illustration.  This consists of a series of nooses fastened to a strong twine or wire.  They [Page 40] may be of any number, and should either consist of fine wire, horse-hair, or fine fish-line.  If of wire, common brass “sucker wire,” to be found in nearly all hardware establishments and country stores, is the best.  Each noose should be about four inches in diameter.  To make it, a small loop should be twisted on one end of the wire, and the other passed through it, thus making a slipping loop, which will be found to work very easily.  Fifteen or twenty of these nooses should be made, after which they should be fastened either to a stout string or wire, at distances of about four inches from each other, as seen in our illustration.  Each end of the long string supporting the nooses should then be fastened to a wooden peg.  After selecting the ground, the pegs should be driven into the earth, drawing the string tightly, as seen in our illustration.  The ground around the nooses should then be sprinkled with corn, oats, and the like, and the trap is set.  As a general thing, it is advisable to set it in a neighborhood where