Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys

by Joseph H. Adams

Rabbits, as gardeners know, are fond of carrots and other vegetables, as well as apples. There are many ways of rigging a snare with bait. The trap is arranged so the rabbit puts its head through a noose, and springs the trap as it touches the bait. One of the best traps I know of this kind is called, in northern Vermont, a “French twitch-up” (Fig. 4). This trap can be made at home, and carried and set wherever needed. It is made as follows: Take a board about twenty inches long and ten inches wide. Measure off eight inches from one end, and with a pair of dividers describe a circle five inches in diameter. Around this circle bore holes three-eighths of an inch in diameter an inch apart, through the board, and drive in pegs five inches high. Five inches from the other end bore a larger hole, and set up a square peg (or a round one with flat side) seven inches high. Procure a half-inch stick long enough to reach from the centre of the circle of pegs to the upright and three inches beyond it. Screw this stick fast to the upright at a point two inches from the board—loosely, so it will work up and down, sharpening the end inside the pen, and cutting a notch on the upper side at the other end as shown in Fig. 4. Cut another notch near the top of the upright post, and fit into the two notches a half-inch stick with chisel-shaped ends. This arrangement resembles very closely the figure 4. A strong cord from the middle of this short stick leads to the spring-pole at a point about a foot from the end.

A noose of fine, soft wire or plaited horse-hair is fastened to the end of the spring-pole, and laid evenly around on the tops of the circle of pegs, which must be of an equal height. An apple or a carrot is speared upon the sharp end of the bait-stick. The rabbit smells the bait, puts its head over the fence and through the noose to take a nibble. When it touches the bait-stick, up goes the noose, and it is caught. But the snare on top of the little fence is likely to fall or be rubbed off, so a deep, sharp notch must be made into the top of every peg into which the noose fits. This is undoubtedly a Yankee improvement on a very old device. Formerly there was no pen and the noose was laid on the ground.

One of the very best traps for rabbits is a kind used in the South (Fig. 5). How often on a frosty morning would one’s heart thump as one came into view and looked to see if the trigger was up and the door was down!

It is made of rough boards twenty to twenty-four inches long, one being an inch shorter, and all at least six inches wide, nailed into a long box. The rear being closed up with a board, and the top being an inch shorter, there is room for a door which slides up and down. Two thin strips are nailed upright to the front of the side-pieces, to keep the door from falling outward; small cleats inside complete a channel, in which the door slides easily up and down. Then with an auger or bit two holes are bored into the top five-eighths to one inch in diameter, one hole being nine inches from the front, the other nine inches to the rear of the first. Into the one next the door a stake is set up about ten inches high, with a crotch at the top. Then a stick eight inches long and as thick as a lead-pencil is cut; five inches from one end a cut is made half-way through, and a deep notch taken out the short end. This is dropped, notch upward, into the other hole. A stiff stick eighteen inches long is then cut, a string tied to each end, and then balanced in the crotch. The door is raised five inches, and one string tied to a nail in the top. The other string is tied to the upper end of the trigger, the notch of which is caught on the under side of the top board. The trap thus set is placed at right angles to the path, not directly in it. Foolish Bunny comes along. A good hole is something a rabbit is ever on the lookout for. Here is a new one; he will look into it and see what it is like. It is not necessary to put even a carrot or an apple inside. He crowds in, butts his head against the trigger at the end, up it goes, down drops the door behind, and he is fast. The trigger must be set under the front edge of the hole, otherwise the rabbit will not be able to push it from him.

Instead of a box, a section of a hollow log, called in the South a “gum,” may be used, two stakes being driven in front to hold the door. Fig. 6.

The muskrat is an abundant animal about ponds, ditches, and the banks of sluggish streams. It is easily trapped. They remind one of little beavers, and if their fur was not so very common it would be more highly prized, for it is really soft and fine. If one can find their runway (a path eight or nine inches wide along which they travel from place to place) one can always capture them by the same kind of trap that an Indian sets for beaver and otter, as well as for musquash. He calls it the “kilheg’n.” Fig. 7.

Drive two stakes two feet or more high and at least an inch thick into the ground three inches apart at one side of the path. Opposite these two sticks drive in two more, and lay a stick across between them, pushing it down nearly level with the path for a bed-piece. Then get a pole of any length whatever, lay the butt end across the path on top of the bed, hewing the sides flat, if necessary. See that it rests evenly on the bed, and keep the other end in place with a stake driven on each side. This pole is called the “fall.”

Lash each pair of stakes together at their tops with rope or tough bark or withe, to prevent spreading, and lay a stiff stick across. Cut a half-inch straight stick and lay it on top of the bed, lashing one end loosely to the stake, leaving the other end free to rise and fall. This is the trigger. Now for the “crooked stick.” It is a stick as long as from the bed to the cross-piece, and has a sudden bend at the upper end. Often one can find a small sapling an inch through with just the right bend at the end. Notch it as shown in Fig. 8. Tie a stout cord or withe around the fall, raise the same nine or ten inches, lay the crooked stick over the cross-piece, and tie the withe fast. Then bend the other end of the crooked stick towards the ground, and catch the top of it behind the trigger, which is raised just enough (two inches) for the purpose. When the rat comes along it steps on the trigger, freeing the crooked stick, whereupon the fall drops and pins the creature there. Heavy weights should be piled upon the fall alongside the path, and the sides should be brushed in to keep the animal from going around. No bait is required for this trap.