Of the lasso or the "bolas," used in South America for capturing certain animals and birds, no description need be given, as this method of trapping is only to be performed by a person trained from childhood to ride and throw the lasso. The same remark applies to the use of the blowpipe (see Bates's "Amazons"), and the Australian "boomerang" and "throwstick."
Regarding the use of the blowpipe, I see that an American author on Taxidermy, who has written a very good book on the subject — albeit he has, perhaps unwittingly, cribbed my title of "Practical Taxidermy" — appears to have attained remarkable proficiency in the use of this weapon, and describes also his method of making it, thus:
"The blowpipe is of great service for collecting warblers and other small birds. It should be made by encasing a long glass tube in wood, to prevent breaking. The ordinary glass tubes used by glass-blowers make good blowpipes, which should have a diameter of 0.5 in. and be not less than 6 ft. long.
To encase a pipe with wood, take two strips of straight-grained pine, and plane or "gouge" out a half-round groove the full length of each, glue them together, and wire firmly over the glass pipe. When the glue is dry, remove the wires, and plane the wood round until it has a diameter of 1.5 in.; if smaller it will sag, and not do good shooting. Putty balls should be used, and blown with a quick puff, which is easily acquired by practice. The putty is thickened with whiting until the pellets will roll hard, but they should not be dry enough to crumble.
With this novel gun I have killed as many as fifty-six warblers in less than a day, and spoiled but few specimens in killing."
Rowland Ward, also, in his "Sportsman's Handbook," appears to favour the use of the blowpipe, and very correctly says at page 9:
"The implement is so simple and so easily constructed that the price of it is inappreciable. About 3 ft. length of any straight metal or wooden tubing, 0.75 in. diameter, through which a pellet the size of a marble may be thrown, will serve well, but an even longer tube may be chosen. The pellet should be of clay or any putty, rolled in the hand to easily pass through the barrel without too much windage. It should not touch the mouth, but be lightly placed just in the orifice, by stopping which with the thumb the tube can be conveniently carried loaded, muzzle up, ready for the most rapid use. To propel the pellet the puff must be sudden and powerful. There is a proper way of effecting this. When a practitioner first begins to use the blow-pipe, it is a common error to eject the breath only direct from the lungs; he should acquire the habit of inflating his cheeks, so as to make a storage of wind, as it were, for each shot; that, added to the breath from the lungs, gives a force which will sometimes astonish him. The hand follows the eye in aim, and practice will often develop unthought-of proficiency."
The catapult is also a first-rate weapon in a skilful hand for procuring small birds. I must confess I cannot use it as well as some young friends of mine, who knock over nearly every sitting bird they aim at, and even now and then are successful with such difficult shots as at swallows on the wing; a novice, on the contrary, nearly always succeeds in stinging his fingers and missing the object aimed at.
I remember also, when a boy, using a very effective weapon, which I should describe as a catapult gun. It was, if I recollect aright, fashioned similarly to a cross bow, the bolt, however, from which was ejected from a little wash-leather bag by means of very powerful India-rubber springs, which being released by a trigger delivered a bullet or small shot from a tube with amazing force and precision. I do not know if such guns are made now, but I should imagine that anyone with a little ingenuity could construct one for himself.
All these appliances, with the well-known air-gun, are chiefly of use for collecting the smaller birds with a minimum of noise. There are several small collecting guns made which do the work required in a much more thorough manner. Messrs. Bland, gun-makers, of Birmingham, some time since showed me an elegant little double-barrelled central fire gun, which seems to be just the thing for the purpose. Messrs. Clarke, of Leicester, also make a small single-barrelled central fire .410-bore collector's gun, but as before observed, they are only fit for small birds at short ranges.