trapping spotted doves

as young kampong boys, we devised very simple contraptions to catch sparrows, mynahs and other common birds that visited our backyard or frontyard. one such contraption that we used was the food cover. we would tie a long string to a thick stick which was used to prop up the food cover. to lure the birds to the trap, we would leave a trail of grains of rice around and inside the cover.

we would then hide ourselves inside the house and wait for the 'prey' to make its way into the trap. more often than not our patience would wear thin after a few minutes of waiting and we would abandon the waiting game. the few times when we managed to pull the string to cause the cover to collapse, we ended up with nothing under the cover. the reason was that the mechanism involved was not technically sound, so its inefficiency provided the bird enough time to make its escape.

i can recall another instance of bird trapping, when i went with my distant relative, who lived in the neighbouring kampong, to a piece of wasteland next to the old tan tock seng hospital to catch spotted doves. for him, catching the doves was not just a game, it was a means of earning some pocket money. he would sell the captured spotted doves to the bird shop.

his spotted dove traps were in the form of loops made from fishing line. each trap would have five loops spaced out quite evenly. the size of each loop was big enough to allow a dove through. he would lay two or three such traps over a certain area. he would camouflage the trap with leaves. grains were strewn on both sides of the loops. the two ends were tied to twigs anchored to the ground.

the trap was devised in such a way that the dove would not have a chance to go right through. one of its feet would get caught within the loop and as it struggled to free itself, the loop (noose) would tighten around its caught leg.

"the spotted dove's call is a sonorous cooing 'kou-kour-kour', a low coo-croo-coo, a soft 'te-croo-coo' and three notes 'coo-coo-croo' with emphasis at the end."

"spotted dove feeds mainly on seeds and it forages through vegetation or on the ground. it forages singly or in pairs, sometimes in small groups if there is a good food site."

in those kampong days, we referred to the spotted dove as 'the coo coo bird'. it was a popular caged bird, especially with the malay folks in the kampong. it was so nice to listen to the soothing call of the dove as you awoke in the morning.