THE HINT TAKEN FROM NATURE. 67 



is fastened on the central point Should therefore the fox, 

 in making his leap to reach the delicacy, get his foot during 

 the descent into either of the forks, he is usually made 

 prisoner. Instances, indeed, are not rare of two foxes being 

 thus found suspended to one and the same Tana. 



Whether this device be formed out of the stump of a 

 tree, or out of a plank, it must be exposed to the weather 

 for some time, prior to being baited ; for as long as it retains 

 a fresh appearance, the fox, or other wild animal, will not 

 come near to it. 



The inventor of the Tana would seem to have been an 

 ingenious person. It is possible he took the idea from an 

 incident similar in its nature to what I am about to relate. 



"The peasant, Jan Jonsson, one day observed," we are 

 told, tc an immense number of magpies and crows congre- 

 gated about a large mountain-ash, and making the air 

 resound with their cries. Curiosity tempted him to proceed 

 to the spot, when he found the anger of the birds was 

 excited by the presence of a fox, which was hanging fast by 

 one of his hind-feet in a fork of the tree, from which dis- 

 agreeable position, in spite of all his twists and wriggles, he 

 was totally unable to extricate himself. The man, in conse- 

 quence, obtained an easy and valuable prize ; but to this 

 day it is matter of speculation if it was in pursuit of a cat, 

 a squirrel, or the like, or for the purpose of feeding on the 

 berries alone, that Michel was led into the scrape." 



That people may occasionally tumble into pit-falls, or be 

 caught by the leg in gins set for wolves or foxes, I can well 

 understand; but that a man should be captured in a Raf- 

 tana, seems somewhat extraordinary. Such, however, was 

 once the case. 



F 2 



