Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/494

* TKAP-DOOR SPIDER. 428 TRAPPING. ure of the spider's supply of silk. The fifth door made, by a single spider, was composed almost en- tirely of niiul with hardly enough web to coat and hinge it. When the trap-doors were fast- ened down a side branch with a new door was always made over night with an opening near the original mouth. The nests are generally built in pairs, but it is not known whether they are occupied by different sexes. The young hatch in the mother's burrow, and live there for a few weeks ; then they leave the nest and begin small tubes of their own. The food of these spiders consists largely of ants and other crawling wingless insects. They have been known to eat earthworms and large caterpillars. The trap-door spiders of Southern Europe make thin covers which rest loosely on the top of the hole, but they are covered with leaves or some- thing of the sort in order to disguise them. Consult: JSIoggridge, Harvesting Ants and TrapDoor Spiders (London, 1873) ; Emmerton, The Structure and Habits of Spiders (Salem, 1878) ; McCook, American Spiders and Their Spinning TTorA:, vol. iii. (Philadelphia, 1893). TRAPEZIUM. A quadrilateral of which no two sides are parallel. See Quadrilateral. TRAPEZOID (Gk. rpaTrefociSiit, trapezoeides, shaped like a trapezium, from Tpaw^^ioy, trape- s:ion, trapezium, table, from rpdirei-a., trapeza, table, from rirpa-, tetra-, four + irovs, potts, foot + (iSos, eidos, form). A quadrilateral two of whose sides are parallel. The parallel sides are called the bases. The area of a trapezoid is given by the formula A =: i {b + b')a, where 6 and b' are the bases and a the altitude. See Quadrilateral. TRAPP, John (1601-69). A Puritan clergy- man. He was born at Croome d'Abetot; gradu- ated B.A. at Oxford (1622); was usher "(1622- 24), then headmaster of the free school at Strat- ford-on-Avon (1624-26); vicar of Weston-on- Avon, two miles from Stratford (1636-46) ; rec- tor of Welford (1646-60); then went back to Weston, where he died. His fame rests upon his commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments, which furnish a specimen of Puritan Bible study at its best, and are often both witty and wise. They were issued in a collected edi- tion in 1662 et seq., and reissued as Commentary on the Old and Tiew Testaments (1865-68). Con- sult Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries (London, 1876). TRAPPING (from trap, AS. trceppe, treppe, OHG. trappa, trapa, trap, snare; connected with Ger. Treppe, flight of stairs, ladder, Goth, trim- pan, MHG. trumpfcn, traiiiprln, Ger. trampeln, Eng. trample, trump). In its strict meaning, the taking of animals and birds by means other than the arrow, spear, or gun. The methods used in trapping may be divided roughly into four classes: (1) 'The pit,' 'the inclosure,' and 'the heavy deadfall,' for the largest animals, such as the bear and the lion, and 'the lighter deadfall' and 'snap trap' for smaller yet dangerous beasts such as wolves, foxes, and beavers. (2) The 1:>ox trap,' the 'switch-up,' and various 'snap traps' and 'snares' for the lesser kinds of quadrupeds. (3) 'Nets' of various kinds with or without de- coys and birdlime for birds. (4) Nets and baskets for fish. 'The pit' is a hole in the earth, lightly covered. and completely inconspicuous. It is placed where the game is likely to go voluntaril}', or where it may be drawn, eitlier by judicious beating or the employment of an enticing bait. The covering breaks through and the quarry is caught in the pit. The kind of animal so caught varies with the country ; for instance, the Arabs trap lions in pits. 'The inclosure' is a space round which in Africa the heav.y creeping vines from tree to tree have been woven together into rough hurdles, and in Asia the bamboo is similarly employed. The 'heavy deadfall' is a pen about three feet wide, four feet deep, and five feet high, made of logs driven into the soil. Four heavy corner posts hold transverse logs, and the fall log. The principle of the trap is that when the bail is dis- turbed, say by a bear, a heavy log will fall upon the animal's back and crush its body against the lower log fixed across the front of the pen. In order to reach the bait the bear must enter the trap at least half way. A slight forward pull re- leases the lower end of the bait stick and causes the 'fall log' to drop. Sometimes the 'fall log' is a heavy slab set up on bait sticks. The 'box trap' is practically the deadfall, but instead of the log falling on the captive, the box lid falls down on the box's sides and end, and incloses the catch unhurt. Its advantage is that it can be placed anywhere, even in a tree. For 'the switch-up' a runway of the animal sought for is selected, and on either side of it, about six inches apart, a notched stick is driven projecting about eight inches above ground, with a cross piece resting on the notches. A spring sapling about five feet long is then driven into the ground near by and its springy head bent over the cross piece and fastened to it, after which a noose of brass wire is lumg on it. The rabbit or other small ani- mal hopping along the runway runs his head in the sliding noose, this grips his neck, and in his struggles he releases the cross piece, which lets the sapling spring back and up to its vertical po- sition, and the captive is lifted off its feet and strangled. The steel spring trap is used univer- sally for every kind of quadruped, from the bear to the rat. It is made of two jaws of toothed steel, which when open lie flat on the ground harmless, but when trod on or the bait in the centre of it disturbed, springs up and catches the unwary intruder in a grip from which there is no escape. Its use is avoided by the more merciful trapper, because it does not always kill, like the deadfall, and does not merely confine, like the box trap. Fish are trapped in a variety of ways. Gill nets are spread from stake to stake across the cliannels or swims of the fish when they come up from the sea, like shad, into the estuaries in the spring to spawn. Their heads are caught in the mesh of the net where their fins will not go through, and from which they cannot go back. Other nets are set to catch fish migrating down from the fresh waters to the sea, like .salmon and trout. Similar ones are sometimes set under the ice, near holes cut into it, toward which the fish will invariably come to breathe. Then there is the 'cast net,' a circular net with lead weights around its bottom edge, which when thrown and spread, by a twirl of the arm, into shallow water where a shoal of fish are, sinks rapidly at the full extent of the circle, and when drawn in by the caster pulls all the fish within its area up