APPENDIX C 115 



In foreign countries it may not be always easy to do 

 this. In such cases the skin of the host must be 

 preserved with the tube for subsequent identification. 

 A number corresponding to the label on the tube 

 should be attached to the skin of the host. 



Fleas collected without records of the host from 

 which they were obtained are of little or no scientific 

 value. For this reason a tube should contain the 

 parasites of one host only. 



A convenient way of preserving records temporarily 

 is to write in pencil on a small piece of paper which 

 can be rolled up and put in the alcohol in the tube. 



Small mammals generally, including bats, are good 

 hosts ; Rodents and Insectivora afford usually the most 

 fruitful captures. In trapping mice and voles only 

 those traps should be used in which the animals are 

 caught alive, or the fleas will have left their hosts 

 before they can be secured and examined. Field- 

 mice caught in the ordinary small penny mouse-trap 

 are often found dead in the morning. The best traps 

 are made on the principle of the ordinary mouse-trap, 

 but larger. A piece of bacon-rind on the hook is a 

 good bait for almost all small mammals. Where 

 a number of traps are put down and left out they 

 should, of course, be visited daily. 



When a live mouse, or other small mammal of 

 similar size, has been captured it may be transferred 

 from the trap into a small white linen or holland bag. 



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