The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-06
University of Virginia,

lana. Nowhere else are the birds so vivid of plumage and so tuneful in song as in the extreme South; and the farther away q person lives, according to the Dominant principle of human nature, the greater Is his desire to own a Southern singing bird Many of the red pops and blue birds. shipped from New Orleans by the hum dreds. find their way to Europe. little about 50 cents brings big price at St. Petersburg for the amusement of the daughter of . Russian Prince, or is bought as geod dis round figure hH Sy oIf prosf Sf sentiment, wishes his children to possess a little bird imported from a country that once belonged to France.
 At present the trapper is doing very little as the best part of the season Tor catching birds is over and gone, During the past spring he has sent in hundreds and hundreds of the. smaller birds, and a few mocking birds and red birds. The red pops are harder to secure than the blue or green pops In fact. the red pop ts green pop at a more mature stage of development He is first green in the back, yellow in the breast and has a breast becomes red. Even then 1t will again turn yellow at the next moulting season and come red again. the following year The red pop therefore is the more 4o or 50 cents apiece for them, according to demand, and the dealers sell them North or East at SIS to $2o per dozen. The blue and green pops bring from 20 to 4O
 At the beginning of spring the trappers in groups of two and three start for the country parishes, carrying their traps and cages. They disappear in the woods and probably are not seen again in civil lisation for two or three months, when they reappear with 300 or 40o birds for shipment to New Orleans. They go from place to place in the woods, setting their traps and sleeping at night under the
 Audubon, fin his autobiography, tells how on his expeditions into the wood he would come 80 strongly. under the in fuence of the sights and sounds of na- ture that he would forget everything else save the surrenderinR of himself up to their influence; and in such mood he would feel as if he would never care to return again to the haunts of men. No doubt bird trappers are affected to a cer- tain extent by the charm of life in the woods, though they are not the kind of men to acknowledge sentiment. They air are only interesting to them when' they are safe in cages. They don't care much for the soughing of the wind in the tree tops and play seven-up under
 In catching red, blue and green pops an ordinary pyramid cage with wings that shut down when a bird steps on the stick. Is used. To catch mocking birds the trap u kind of trap arrangement. To catch pops, a male bird is put in the cage, and for the hooking bird female is used as lure.
 without putting in another bird," said a man who has had experience ln trap ping. "But you have to have another pop If you want to catch blue or a green pop. They come down to fight with the bird in the cage"
 This brought up the mooted question as to whether one bird can understand the that birds talk together. Asked how he accounted for the fact that one bird who had been trapped would permit his friends or relations to get into the same fix, he said:
 see the fellow in the cage knows that the pops in the tree are simply coming down to try to do him up, and naturally he Isn't going to tell them anything about the trap. He knows they are coming to fight him and that all he has to do is to keep his mouth shut and they will be In the trap he has the laugh on them That's the whole explanation. know that to be true because I saw a red pop telling friend not to come in, and he wouldn't come either"
 How. about the female moolSing bird?' was asked.
 "Oh, we'll" answered the trapper "she doesn't want to fight. but you see she knows 1t is cinch that she will never get out, and I suppose she keeps quiet and doesn't put the other bird on because she wants company"
 Mrs JonesI always think twice before I speak once, Sir!
 Mir. Jones (sighing)-Exactly, Maria but you're such quick thinker!-Puck.