The Game-Birds of the Coasts and Lakes of the Northern States of America / A full account of the sporting along our sea-shores and inland waters, with a comparison of the merits of breech-loaders and muzzle-loaders

by Robert Barnwell Roosevelt

Under these circumstances, and in order to fill up a season of the year when there is no other legitimate sporting excitement, trap-shooting has grown in public estimation, and being adopted by a large class of sportsmen, has led to the employment of a numerous body of followers, skilled in the secrets of trapping and preparing birds so that they may be presented to the shooter in the best possible condition.

This class of underlings, who attend to the many wants of the sportsman, whether in the field or at the trap; who break his dogs, carry his bag, or tend his birds; with their quaint wisdom and innate honesty,—deserve more consideration than they receive: but above all, in trap-shooting, are they a necessity, and is their uprightness above price? An unfair trapper may give one man strong birds, and another weak; may pull their wing-feathers, or keep some without water or food, and thus almost decide a contest beforehand.

Their labor is excessive; they have first to catch the birds, and attend to their arrival at the place of shooting early enough to meet the sportsmen; and then they have to run eighteen or twenty-one yards over the uneven and often muddy ground for every bird they place in the trap. Hence, in selecting a place to shoot pigeons, it is desirable, by avoiding sand or soft earth, to save the trapper; under the most favorable circumstance, he will soon be exhausted, and with every advantage, cannot trap more than five hundred birds in a day. Two birds are released, either together or successively, ere the traps are replenished; the trapper, carrying two birds, runs to the traps, sets one after the other, and returns also on the run—for the marksman by this time is at the score—and selects two more birds from the box; this labor, continued during the noontide hours of a blazing day, is not over-remunerated by liberal pay and the surplus birds, that, unless claimed by the shooter, fall by common consent to the share of his hard-working assistant.

The most rapid way is to use five traps, in single-bird shooting, and employ five boys—with a relay of five others when the first are exhausted—to set them; boys are naturally more active than men, and are buoyed up by an excitement that the latter do not feel. The five birds are shot at before the traps are refilled; and by the time the last bird is released the boys stand armed with a fresh one apiece, ready to reset the traps in a moment. In this mode, with good luck in not having too many birds that have to be retrieved, and with regularity, fifteen hundred birds may be shot at in ten hours.

The difficulty of obtaining pigeons in our seaboard cities has been so great of late years, as advancing civilization has reduced the number, and driven westward the migratory hosts which once visited the Eastern States, that not only has the expense enormously increased, but the practice of trap-shooting has diminished. The ordinary price along the Atlantic coast is from twenty to thirty dollars a hundred, and the supply is so small, that the collection of any considerable number, even at that rate, is extremely difficult.

As skill in the act of shooting birds released from a trap, where the sportsman stands prepared, gun in hand and nerves disturbed, if at all, only by the presence of spectators, does not imply ability to acquit oneself well in the field, and tends but little to that end; so it is pursued not for improvement so much as for temporary excitement during the dull months of the year. Pigeons nest in June, a season during which there is absolutely no legitimate sport with the gun whatever; the woodcock are not yet grown, the snipe have passed to their northern homes, and the sportsman fills the vacancy with the emulation of surpassing his associates at trap-shooting. The attempt is exciting, and the art peculiar, requiring great self-command and utter disregard of the jeers, praises, or contemptuous laughter of a thousand spectators.

Tame pigeons are not so well adapted to the purpose as their wild brethren, having a quiet way of ignoring the object for which they are produced, and walking towards the stand, or picking up scraps of food the moment they are released, that is trying to the expectant shooter. Then they are strong of wing and well feathered, so that the shot must be driven hard to penetrate to a vital spot; and they fly as often towards the crowd assembled behind the score as in the contrary direction. Their flight is uneven, and frequently, after rising a few feet, they will suddenly alight, or pitch down part of the way. The best shots, therefore, prefer the wild birds, that go off with a rush the moment the trap is pulled—for, although they fly faster, they are more certain in their motions. Tame birds are collected in the neighborhood of towns and through the country, but rarely in large numbers; and being accustomed to the presence of man, require little special care. Wild birds are brought from long distances, frequently from the confines of Wisconsin, and in consequence of their timid, excitable nature, require continued care. They are captured on their nests, where they congregate in millions; and being cooped in shallow boxes made of slats, only deep enough to allow them to move, but not to use their wings or bruise themselves, are transported as rapidly and tenderly as possible to their destination. They must invariably be accompanied by a careful person to wait on them, and supply food and water, of the latter of which they require large quantities, and they must be moved as rarely and carefully as possible.

The moment they arrive, they should be placed in a prepared room; and each one, as he is taken out, must have his head plunged in water, and be allowed to drink freely. The ceiling of their apartment should be low, or there will be difficulty in catching them, and the windows may be slatted; a sufficient number of perches to accommodate them readily should be set up, and they must be disturbed as little as possible. Food and water should be introduced three times a day, either very quietly, or after the apartment has been darkened by closing the shutters. In spite of the best of care, about ten per cent. will perish on the journey, or in consequence of it.

Having been retained in the room two or three days, they will be in their best condition, recovered from their exposure, and not yet injured by their confinement; and may then be caught, replaced in the boxes, and carried to the shooting-ground. It is a common practice to pull out some of the smaller feathers under the tail, or to stick a pin in the gristle of the rump, with a view of making them fly better; as a bird that remains in the trap, when a ground-trap is used, after it is pulled, and refuses to rise, baulks the shooter, and any pain inflicted on them just as they are being used will make them wild and anxious to escape.

There are three kinds of traps used, called the ground, spring, and plunge traps; the former is so arranged that when the string is drawn, the trap, which is composed of tin plates, falls over and lies flat on the ground; while the others, through the instrumentality of a spring, or by a vigorous jerk on the line, throw the birds into the air. The ground-traps are considered by many the most scientific, leaving the shooter in doubt as to the direction of the bird’s flight, and preventing his shooting on the calculation which can be made very accurately with a spring-trap—that the bird will invariably be thrown to a certain place, and may be killed there, nominally on the wing, but before he has really got under weigh; but in the West the plunge-traps are generally preferred, as they insure the bird’s flying at once.