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
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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 quails are known
to abound; and as they run all over the ground in search of food,
they are sure to come across the bait strewn for them, and equally
as certain to be caught and entangled in the nooses. The writer
has known as many as six quails to be thus caught at a time, on
a string of only twelve nooses. Partridges and woodcock will
occasionally be found entangled in the snare, and it will oft-times
happen that a rabbit will be secured by the device.

[Illustration]

HOOP NOOSES.

This is a variation from t