436 Lord Glenbervie on the devastations of Mice in Forests ; 



afterwards in New Forest, the mischief done and to be appre- 

 hended from these vermin, and I ordered every means that 

 occurred either to myself or others, to be used for their de- 

 struction. 



1. The first and most obvious was to procure a number of Cats 

 to be turned out in the inclosures, and sixteen having been brought 

 to the woodman's cottage in Haywood, the old ones being let 

 loose, killed a great number, and travelled to a considerable 

 distance, but there was reason to fear that a fair trial could not 

 then be made of that remedy, for there were no means of con- 

 fining them to any particular spots, and as soon as the digging of 

 holes or trenches (as I shall afterwards state), was adopted, they 

 became nearly useless, as they satisfied themselves with the Mice 

 that were caught in them without hunting for others. 



2. Another expedient has been to clear away the bushes, furze, 

 fern, rough grass, &c. and so expose the Mice to the stronger 

 vermin and birds of prey, but this was also soon abandoned on 

 account of the great expense incurred, in order to keep down that 

 natural cover. 



3. A great variety of poisons have been tried, mixed up into a 

 kind of paste, with grease, flour, &c. viz. arsenic, nux vomica, rats- 

 bane, corrosive sublimate, ground glass, &c. The Mice appear to 

 have eaten of them all, but we have no means of judging of the ef- 

 fect, as none of them were found dead, except in the holes. In one 

 inclosure, consisting of forty acres, where those poisons had been 

 tried, nearly 2,000 Mice were soon afterwards caught, which 

 seems to prove, that the poisons employed had not been very 

 effectual. Nux vomica was the most so. 



4. Seven or eight different sorts of traps were set in the places 

 most infested. Those combined with small pitfalls were found to 

 answer best. They consisted of a box sunk in the ground, with 

 the top level with the surface. This top had a pin passing through 

 the centre which turned on a pivot, upon which it was put into the 

 box, and when the Mouse came in pursuit of the bait, he was pre- 

 cipitated into the box below, and the top returned to its former 

 station; wooden traps of this description were used at first with 

 some success, but the moisture of the ground making them swell, 



