operations. It is the one in most common use among the poachers of
England, hence its name. The pieces are three in number, and may
be cut from pine wood, affording easy and profitable employment
for the jack-knife during odd hours and rainy days, when time hangs
heavily.

The pieces are so simple in form and easy of construction that a
sufficient number for fifty traps might be whittled in less than two
hours, by any smart boy, who is at all "handy" with his jack-knife.

If a few good broad shingles can be found, the work is even much
easier,--mere splitting and notching being then all that is necessary.
The bait stick should be about eight inches long, pointed at one
end, and supplied with a notch in the other at about half an inch
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from the tip. The upright stick should be considerably shorter than
the bait stick, and have a length of about ten inches, one end being
nicely pointed, and the broad side of the other extremity supplied
with a notch similar to the bait stick. About four inches from the
blunt end, and on the narrow side of the stick, a square notch should
be cut, sufficiently large to admit the bait stick loosely. The catch
piece now remains. This should be about two and a-half inches in
width, and bevelled off at each end into a flat edge. The shapes of
the different pieces, together with their setting, will be readily
understood by a look at our illustration.

[Illustration]

A hundred of these pieces will make a small bundle, and may be easily
carried by the young trapper, together with his other necessaries,