TRAPPING (from trap, AS. trerppe, treppe, OHG. frappe', trapa, trap, snare; connected with Ger. Treppc, flight of stairs, ladder, Goth. trim pan, 11111G. trumpfen, trample?, Ger. trampeln, Eng. trample, tramp). In its strict meaning, the taking of animals and birds by means other than the arrow, spear, or gun. The methods used in trapping may be divided roughly into four classes: (1) `The pit,' the inclosure,' and 'the heavy deadfall,' for the largest animals, such as the bear and the lion, and `the lighter deadfall' and `snap trap' for smaller yet dangerous beasts such as wolves, foxes, and beavers. (2) The 'box trap.' the `switch-up,' and various `snap traps' and 'snares' for the lesser kinds of quadrupeds. (3) `Nets' of various kinds with or without de coys and birdlime for birds. (4) Nets and baskets for fish.
`The pit' is a hole in the earth, lightly covered, and completely inconspicuous. It is placed where the game is likely to go voluntarily, or where it may be drawn, either by judicious beating or the employment of an enticing bait. The covering breaks through and the quarry is caught in the pit. The kind of animal so caught varies with the country; for instance, the Arabs trap lions in pits. `The inclosure' is a space round which in Africa the heavy creeping vines from tree to tree have been woven together into rough hurdles, and in Asia the bamboo is similarly employed.
The 'heavy deadfall' is a pen about three feet wide, four feet deep, and five feet high, made of logs driven into the soil. Four heavy corner posts hold transverse logs, and the fall log. The principle of the trap is that when the bait is dis turbed, say by a bear, a heavy log will fall upon the animal's back and crush its body against the lower log fixed across the front of the pen. In order to reach the bait the bear must enter the trap at least half way. A slight forward pull re leases the lower end of the bait stick and causes the `fall log' to drop. Sometimes the `fall log' is a heavy slab set up on bait sticks. The `box trap' is practically the deadfall, but instead of the log falling on the captive, the box lid falls down on the box's sides and end, and incloses the catch unhurt. lts advantage is that it can be placed anywhere, even in a For `the switch-up' a runway of the animal sought for is selected, and on either side of it, about six inches apart, a notched stick is driven projecting about eight inches above ground, with a cross piece resting on the notches. A spring sapling about five feet long is then driven into the ground near by and its springy head bent over the cross piece and fastened to it, after which a noose of brass wire is hung on it. The rabbit or other small ani
mal hopping along the runway runs his head in the sliding noose, this grips his neck, and in his st-ruggles he releases the cross piece, which lets the sapling spring back and up to its vertical po sition, and the captive is lifted off its feet and strangled. The steel spring trap is used univer sally for every kind of quadruped, from the hear to the rat. It is made of two jaws of toothed steel, which when open lie flat on the ground harmless, but when trod on or the bait in the centre of it disturbed, springs up and catches the unwary intruder in a grip from which HINT is no escape. Its use is avoided by the more merciful trapper, because it. does not always kill, like the deadfall, and does not merely confine, like the box trap.
Fish are trapped in a variety of ways. Gill nets are spread from stake to stake across the channels or swims of the fish when they come up from the sea, like shad, into the estuaries in the spring to spawn. Their heads are caught in the mesh of the net where their fins will not go through, and front which they cannot go hack. Other nets are set to catch fish migrating down from the fresh waters to the sea, like salmon and trout. Similar ones are sometimes set under the ice, near holes cut into it, toward which the fish will invariably come to breathe. Then there is the 'cast net,' a circular net with lead weights around its bottom edge, which when thrown and spread, by a twirl of the arm, into shallow water where a shoal of fish are, sinks rapidly at the full extent of the circle, and when drawn in by the caster pulls all the fish within its area up with it on to land. Baskets are set for some fish, such as eels, iuto which they can crawl, but out of which they cannot return. Snares, too, or snigs, as they are sometimes called, are used to capture fish in shallow water, notably pike. They are simply wire nooses at the end of a rod which the soarer quietly slips over the head of the fish and tightens with a snatch. The Chinese have an ingenious way of trap ping fish. They attach a board along the side of a boat so that it descends into the water at a very slight angle. They paint this white and cover it with a shining iridescent varnish. Then, on a moonlight night. they propel the boat toward the shoal of fish, and the fish, mistaking the radiance of the board for that of the ele ments, swim up the shallow board, which is flush at the top with the gunwale, and over into the boat.