28 Studies in Rat Catching. [ch. ii, 



I don't find the ferret in it in the morning. 

 I also take one of these traps with me if I 

 am going where rats are very numerous ; 

 then, if a ferret stops too long in a hole, I 

 stick the mouth of the trap over the hole 

 and pack it round with earth and stop up all 

 the bolt holes, and then go on working with 

 the other ferrets. When the sluggard is at 

 last tired of the hole, it walks into the trap, 

 shoving up the wire swing door, which falls 

 down behind it, and there it has to stop till 

 you fetch it. 



If I am going to ferret wheat stacks where 

 rats have worked strong, I take with me 

 half a dozen pieces of thin board about a 

 foot long. I do so for this reason. The 

 first thing rats do when they take possession 

 of a stack is to make a good path, or run, all 

 round it just under the eaves ; and when 

 disturbed by ferrets, they get into this run 

 and keep running away round and round the 



