The Desert Home: The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

  TRAPPING THE BEASTS AND BIRDS.

  "Harry was the first who succeeded in making a capture; and that was apair of grey squirrels, which he had trapped at the bottom of theirtree. For these a large cage was constructed, and they soon became sotame that they would take the nuts provided for them out of our hands.These, of course, were only idle pets; but they added much to ourcompany and amusement, as we watched them in their antics around thebars of their cage, now springing from point to point, and now sittingmonkey-like, and gnawing the nuts as they held them between theirfore-paws.

  "Shortly after this event, Frank became the hero of the hour; and hisachievement was one of considerable importance. For some time, he hadbeen keeping his eye upon the wild turkeys; and for the purpose ofsecuring some of them alive, he had constructed, not far from the house,a species of penn--which is known in America by the name of `log-trap.'This was a very simple contrivance. It was made of split rails, such asCudjo used for his fences; and these were placed upon one another, so asto enclose a hollow square between them. They were raised about theheight of an ordinary fence from the ground, while other rails--heavyones--were laid over the top, close enough to prevent the turkeys,should they enter, from escaping, but not so near each other as todarken the interior of the trap, and so render it forbidding in itsappearance. The entrance was the main contrivance, although it was notan original idea with Frank. It was upon a plan similar to the wirecages used for trapping rats--where the rat can easily find its way in,but has not sufficient cunning to know the road out again. Precisely asthe wire funnel is constructed for the rats, Frank had made one of railsfor his turkeys; and waited patiently until some of them should enterit. He placed various kinds of seeds and roots within the enclosure;but several days passed, and no birds were taken.

  "After some practice, the `bird-catcher' became able to imitate the`gobbling' of the old cock? so exactly that at some distance off in thewoods, you could not tell but that it was one of themselves. By thismeans, he could call the turkeys up to the ground where he himself layconcealed; but the seeds he had baited his trap with were notsufficiently enticing, and none of them would go under the rails. Atlength, however, he hit upon an expedient, which was sure to succeed, ifanything could. He had shot one of the turkeys with his arrows; andtaking it into the trap, he carefully propped it up--so that it appearedto be still alive, and busy feeding upon his bait. He then retired tosome distance; and, hiding himself among the brushwood, `gobbled' asbefore. Three large birds soon made their appearance, coming cautiouslythrough the woods. Of course, like all wild turkeys, they were downupon the ground--stalking along just like so many ostriches. At length,they came in sight of the penn, and seeing one of their own kind;--quietly feeding, as they thought, within it--they approached fearlessly,and ran around the enclosure, seeking for an entrance. Frank laywatching all their movements; and his heart, at this moment, wasthumping against his ribs. His anxiety did not long endure. The threegreat birds soon found the wide funnel; and, without hesitating, ran upit and appeared inside the trap. Frank sprang from his lurking-place;and, running forward, first shut up the entrance by filling it withstones. Then climbing upon the top, he slipped through between therails; and secured the birds by tying their legs together with a stoutthong of deerskin. When he had lifted them out of the trap, he againadjusted everything--leaving the `decoy turkey' quietly feeding asbefore--and shouldering his prize, he marched off in triumph. Hisreturn to the house was greeted with exclamations of joy; and a railpenn was immediately built for the birds, similar to the trap in whichthey had been caught, but, of course, without the funnel or entrance.The only regret we had was, that the three were all cocks--regular `oldgobblers.'

  "Next day, however, Frank remedied this by making a still more importantcapture. On returning to visit his trap before sunrise, he saw from adistance that there was a live turkey inside, with a number of smallerbirds, which in the grey light appeared like so many partridges. Ongetting nearer, to his surprise and delight, he found that what he hadtaken for partridges was a large brood of young turkeys, and that whichhe had first seen was their mother. The little ones were running outand in, for they could easily pass between the rails, while the motherran around, thrusting her head out of the penn, and occasionallyspreading her wings and flapping upwards, endeavouring to escape in thatdirection. The young were all making a great ado, and evidently awarethat their mother was `in the trap.'

  "Frank, fearing that the youngsters might get off if he attempted toapproach them alone, came back to the house, and summoned Harry, Cudjo,and myself, to his assistance. To make sure of them, we took with usthe long canvass tilt of the wagon with a couple of blankets fastened toit at the end. We adopted every precaution, as we looked upon capturingthis young brood as a thing of great importance--since we could bringthem up quite domesticated, and from them should breed as many more aswe pleased. We approached the penn with all due caution; and when nearwe separated, each of us taking a side. We then advanced upon the trap,completely surrounding it; and, while the birds ran confusedly from sideto side, we stretched the tilt and blankets all around the penn, thuscutting off their retreat. In a few moments we had secured both the oldhen and her chicks--amounting, in all, to no less than eighteen of them!This was a capture, indeed; and we immediately hurried back to thehouse with them, not forgetting to take along with us the `decoyturkey'--which, being a fine fat fellow, and killed only the day before,served us for a very good dinner. For the turkey hen and young we builtanother penn, near to that where we had imprisoned the three `oldgobblers.' The one last constructed was made with more care and closerbetween the rails, so that the youngsters might not get out and wanderoff.

  "Frank again baited his log-trap, and used for a decoy one of thegobblers, which he tied by the leg to a rail. In this way severalothers were caught; when the birds at length became shy, and kept awayfrom the penn altogether. However, we had now as many as we could feed,until our corn should ripen and be gathered.

  "From this time every day saw new additions to our aviary. Frank hadprocured the bark of the _ilex opaca_, or American holly; and this, whenmacerated in water, and then fermented and cleared of its fibres, madethe very best bird-lime. A large cage had been constructed out ofbow-wood with the straight reeds of the cane, and divided into manycompartments--so that birds of different species should be separatedfrom each other. In a short time the cage was seen to contain specimensof the blue-jay and red-bird, or Virginia nightingale, orioles ofseveral species, and doves of two distinct kinds. There were alsoseveral Carolina paroquets; and Frank had succeeded in capturing a birdof a very rare kind, which, I believe, is known to the Indians as the`wakon.' It was the American bird of paradise; and, like those of theEastern world, had several long feathers growing from its tail, andstretching away gracefully behind it. In the cage were also finches ofdifferent varieties, and beautiful bright plumage. Among others werethe green bird, the redstart, and the cock of the woods; the little bluebird also, the red-winged starring, and the orange-headed troupiale--which last species migrated in large flocks into the valley. There wasa number of small cages, which had been constructed for the smallest ofall birds--the humming-birds--and Frank had caught no less than a dozendifferent kinds of these most beautiful creatures, which he dailysupplied with fresh flowers. Another cage, apart from all the rest,held an inmate that; so far as appearance went, you would have said hadno right to be thus distinguished in having a house all to himself. Hewas of a sober grey colour, somewhat of the wagtail shape, with longblack legs, and claws of a dirty hue; and was altogether an ill-favouredbird, not any better-looking than a common house-sparrow. Had you knownnothing more about him than his outward appearance, you would hardlyhave deigned to waste a second look upon him. The moment, however, hisblack bill was opened, and his lead-coloured throat became expanded in asong, you forgot all about the dull hue of his plumage. You all at onceforgot the bright wings of
the paroquet, and the beautiful form of theoriole; the red-bird, the blue-jay, and the wakon, were alike forgotten,and you gazed upon this sweet musician with delight and admiration. Asyou continued to listen, you would notice that he mimicked almost everysound that occurred within hearing. When any of the others commenced tosing, he would catch the strain--as it were, from their lips--and,giving it in a far higher and bolder tone, shame them into silence.This, I need hardly tell you, was the famous mock-bird--the nightingaleof America.

  "While Frank was daily increasing his stock of winged creatures, Harrywas not idle among the quadrupeds. No less than five kinds of squirrelshad been caught and caged. These were the grey, black, and red or foxvarieties of the tree squirrel, and two species of ground squirrel--onethe common hackee, or chipping squirrel; while the other was a newspecies, which we had caught on the desert plain above, among the rootsof the _artemisia_ plant. This last was a beautiful little creature,not much larger than a mouse, and striped like a little zebra. It hasnever--as far as I can tell--been described by naturalists; and on thisaccount, as well as from its peculiar size and beauty, it was a generalfavourite with all of us, particularly with Luisa and Mary, in whoselaps it soon learnt to sleep, like a tamed mouse.

  "Besides the squirrels, Harry's collection embraced a hare and a coupleof raccoons. These last were the produce of a night-hunt or two whichCudjo had made with the dogs; and although these fox-like animals wereby no means useful pets, yet they gave a variety to our collection, andadded to our amusement in the observation of their curious habits."