Book VII. 



NOXIOUS BIRDS. 



1065 



6856. W7ien a rat or mouse has been caught, cut or beat him severely, and let him go ; and he will make 

 Buch a crying noise, that his companions will desert the place. Some persons, indeed, flea ofi'the skin of 

 their heads ; but this method of extermination is too cruel to be recommended to the practice of any 

 humane person : or, put a piece of fried rusty ba- 

 con in the middle of a board, three feet square, 

 and cover the board pretty thickly with bird-lime, 

 leaving some narrow alleys for the vermin to get 

 at the bacon, in doing which they will frequently 

 get among the lime and be caught. In Stafford- 

 shire it is customary to put bird-lime about the 

 holes, amongst which they run ; and, the bird- 

 lime adhering to them, they will notecase scratch- 

 ing until they kill themselves. Or, mix the ex- 

 pressed juice of the deadly night-shade with 

 wheaten flour or oat-meal; cut the paste into 

 small pieces, and put them in the holes or tracks frequented by the rats : though they will not eat this 

 nauseous dose, its smell is so exceedingly offensive that they will immediately decamp. Of course, the 

 renewal of this preparation, as often as it loses its odor, will prove an effectual barrier to the return of 

 these vermin. In order to prevent accidents to domestic animals from the poisons usually employed, it 

 has been suggested to place the baits in the traps, and to enclose the traps in cases, having holes in the 

 ends of them large enough to admit rats, but small enough to exclude cats, dogs, &c. 



6857. The two following expedients for destroying rats are given in Willick's Domestic Encyclopcedia, 

 vol. iii. Among other remedies, he recommends that commonly employed on the continent, when a 

 sponge is fried with salt butter in a pan ; then compressed between two plates, and cut into small pieces, 

 which are scattered about the holes frequented by rats and mice. This preparation is devoured with 

 avidity ; it excites thirst in the animals, which should be gratified by exposing shallow vessels containing 

 water. On drinking this fluid, after having swallowed the burnt sponge, it distends their stomach, and 

 proves a fatal repast. Or, a capacious cask of moderate height must be procured, and put in the vicinity of 

 places infested with rats. During the first week, this vessel is only employed to allure the rats to visit the 

 solid top of the cask, by means of boards or planks arranged in a sloping direction to the floor, which are 

 everv dav strewed with oat^meal, or any other food equally grateful to their palate ; and the principal part 

 of which is exposed on the surface. After having thus been lulled into security, and accustomed to find 

 a regular supply for their meals, a skin of parchment is substituted for the wooden top of the cask, and 

 the former is cut for several inches, with transverse incisions through the centre, so as to yield on the 

 smallest pressure. At the same time, a few gallons of water, to the depth of five or six inches, are 

 poured into the empty cask. In the middle of this element a brick or stone is placed, so as to project one 

 or two inches above the fluid ; and that one rat may find on the former a place of refuge. These prepa. 

 ratory measures being taken, the boards as well as the top of the cask should now be furnished with 

 proper bait, in order to induce them to repeat their visits. No sooner does one of these marauders 

 plunge through the section of the parchment into the vessel, than it retreats to the brick or stone, and 

 commences its lamentations for relief. Nor are its whining notes uttered in vain ; others soon follow, and 

 share the same fate ; when a dreadful conflict begins among them, to decide the possession of the dry 

 asylum. Battles follow in rapid succession, attended with such loud and noisy shrieks, that all the rats 

 in the neighborhood hasten to the fatal spot, where they experience similar disasters. Thus hundreds 

 may be caught by a strafcigem, which might be greatly facilitated by exposing a living rat taken in a trap, 

 or purchased from a professional rat-catcher. 



6858. A successful mode of enticing rats has been lately practised by Broad, a farmer at 

 Thruxton in Herefordshire. He uses a bore trap, two feet long, eight inches wide, and 

 nine inches deep, and little different in construction from the common one. His secret 

 consists in scenting light colored malt, and also some wheat straws with oil of carraways, 

 and not setting the traps for a day or two till the rats have been accustomed to eat the 

 malt without fear. (i^. Mag. xiv. p. 421.) 



6859. The water or field rat {Mas amphibius, L.), and the fild mouse (ilf. terreslrisy 

 fig. 747.), may be destroyed as follows. Go out in 



the dog-days, when the fields are tolerably bare ; and 

 having found their nests or holes, (which in shape and 

 size resemble augur-holes) put therein hemlock-seed, 

 or hellebore, mixed with barley, of which they will 

 eat so as to destroy themselves. As those vermin 

 frequently consume seed-corn after it is deposited in the ground, it has been suggested 

 to steep it in bull's gall, which will impart to it such a bitter taste that they will not touch 

 it. Some persons mix sand with their stacked corn, which deters them from burrowing in 

 it, by failing into the ears. The following method has been found very effectual. Fill 

 an earthen pot half-full of water, and cover it over with a board that has a hole in the 

 middle, then cover the board over with straw, pea-haulm, or similar rubbish ; under 

 which the vermin will take shelter, and, creeping to the hole, will fall through and be 

 drowned in the water. 



Sect. II. Birds injurious to Agriculture. 



6860. Of the aveSf the species more peculiarly injurious to the agriculturist is the 

 kite, (Falco viilvus, L.), by its attacks on young poultry. To ensnare them proceed as 

 follows. Near the place where poultry are kept, let iron gins be fixed, about four 

 inches broad, which must be baited with chicken, mice, or raw meat ; and thus these 

 ravenous fowls are easily taken. Some persons stretch lines or nets over the place where 

 the fowls are ; but nothing drives them away like a well charged gun. Or, steep the 

 entrails of pigs, fowls, or rabbits, in the lees of wine, into which you have infused a 

 quantity of nux vomica, and throw the bait where the fowls come in the evening, or 

 early in the morning. This will intoxicate them so that a person waiting near the spot 

 may easily take them. 



