Coney-catching Coney-catching Coney-catching is Elizabethan slang for theft through trickery. It comes from the word "coney" (sometimes spelled "conny"), meaning a rabbit raised for the table and thus tame. A coney-catcher was a thief or con man. It was a practice in medieval and Renaissance England in which devious people on the street would try to con or cheat vulnerable or gullible pedestrians. The term appears in "The Taming of the Shrew" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" by William Shakespeare, and in the John Florio translation of Montaigne's essay, "Of the Cannibals." The term was first used in print by
Coney Island well as several rides that are not incorporated into either theme park. Coney Island also has several other visitor attractions and hosts renowned events as well. Coney Island's amusement area is one of a few in the United States that is not mostly owned by any one entity. The current amusement park contains various rides, games such as skeeball and ball tossing, and a sideshow, including games of shooting, throwing, and tossing skills. The rides and other amusements at Coney Island are owned and managed by several different companies and operate independently of each other. It is not possible to