Country Life
MORE STEEL TRAPS.
Since writing some account of the inhuman prevalence of the steel trap in the West of England I have come upon yet more distressing evidence than before of the pain inflicted by the trappers on animals of all sorts and kinds. One member of a small group of sportsmen who preserve game in South Devon told me that last year only one pheasant in every five was in possession of both legs. This was the general average on his shoot, but the proportion of maimed birds was considerably higher even than this in shops where pheasants were bought. This would seem to indicate that the rabbit-trappers did some direct trade in birds as well as rabbits. Another sportsman in South Wales, who owns farms that were at one time populous with partridges, thinks that he has seen the last bird. There was one covey last year. This year he knows of no nesting pair. The neighbourhood is a favourite resort of snipe ; and even these wild marsh- loving birds suffer. He shot one bird early this year which had lost both feet in a steel trap.
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