1869. ] 



TRAPPING MICE. 



115 



stating that they are intended as specimens, and are not for sale ; whereas the 

 '•genuine English" of the matter is, that they dare not allow it, for fear of 

 exposing the imposition they are attempting to practise. 



Jersey. C. B. S. 



TRAPPING MICE. 



WISH to recommend a very simple and efficient contrivance for destroying 

 Mice, to those persons whose crops suffer from the depredations of these 

 troublesome little animals. The accompanying figures show that there 

 is nothing complicated in my mousetrap, which consists simply of a couple 

 of bricks, and a piece of wire run through a large pea : — 



Fia.2 



Fig. 1 shows the appearance of the trap when down ; fig. 2, its appearance 

 when set up ; while the subjoined diagram shows more exactly the pea on the 

 wire, as placed in the setting. The trap should be placed either in the row to 

 be protected, or close to it. In setting, one brick is placed on its narrow side, or 

 edgeways, while the other is laid flat, with its narrow side just touching the 

 broad side of the first, this being done in order to make sure that the flat brick 

 is placed at the right distance, so that when it falls it may leave no space for the 

 mouse to escape. The wire and the pea being then in readiness, the flat brick is 

 raised so that it may rest on its lower edge, as in fig. 2. The wire, which is to 

 keep it in this position, should be about one-eighth of an inch thick, and about 

 two inches long, and not pointed ; it should be placed in a slanting direction, 

 with the pea near the lower end, which 

 end should be placed within half an 

 inch of the bottom of the brick on 

 edge, while the other end is not more 

 than one inch from the upper edge of 

 the brick that is to fall. The pea end 

 of the wire is that which must give 

 way, and if it be placed in a more horizontal position than that I have described, 

 it will not do so with the slight touch of a mouse or a sparrow. This, therefore, 

 is one reason for having the pea near to the lower end, while another is that 

 of bringing the pea as near as possible to the running level of the mouse, so as 



