io6 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



way out. This can be used to capture escaped birds as 

 well as vermin. 



General Trapping. Whether there are wired enclosures 

 or not, there should be a plan of general trapping carried on. 

 Burrows of skunks should be hunted out and steel traps set 

 in them. Skunks and foxes Hke to run in furrows, and a 

 plough can be run around and steel traps set in the depres- 

 sion. A very good way to outwit the fox, so suspicious of 

 traps, is to select warm spring holes or pools in the woods, 

 and out in the middle, or about a yard from shore, put a bit 

 of meat on a stake, just out of water. About a convenient 

 step from shore set the steel trap just below the surface, 

 placing on the pan a piece of moss which projects from the 

 water like a little island. The fox does not like to wet his 

 feet, and is very apt to step out on the moss to reach the 

 meat. This might interest Mr. Coon also. The raccoon is 

 a great destroyer of nests of eggs and young, and is always 

 hunting for them. If there are coons about, they can also 

 be hunted with dogs at night. 



Mink Trap. Weasels and minks are destructive, blood- 

 thirsty creatures, destroying for the mere love of slaughter. 

 If one gets into a coop or pen it may kill everything there 

 before it leaves. Minks are caught by the professional 

 trappers, especially along brooks, by setting steel traps under 

 water by the margin, putting bait of apple or meat handy 

 on a stick or under a steep bank, arranging matters so that 

 the animal has to go through where the trap is to reach it. 



Weasel Trap. Weasels like to run through holes and 

 dark passages and are apt to have regular runways. These 

 can be detected best by their tracks after snowfalls, and 

 traps can be set. A good way is to pile up some brush and 

 leave a covered passage or hole through it underneath. A 

 trap used very successfully on the Childs-Walcott preserve 



