DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 237 



tliey will not only starve tlic teal to death by 

 quickly consuming their food, but the house- 

 rat, not the luater-rat, will often vary his repast 

 by killing" the teal themselves. 



I would, for the sake of demonstration, permit 

 any man, even in summer, when the house-rat 

 most frequents his watering - places, to search 

 the sides of my ponds, and to find, If he could^ 

 the track of a house-rat. I have them exterminated 

 by trap and lightly-loaded gun, for there are some 

 practised old crafty liouse-rats who cannot be taken 

 in any kind of trap whatever. At the dusky hour 

 of a calm, hot summer's evening, however, if the 

 whereabouts of these old rats has been by their 

 track discovered, they cannot resist coming out 

 for a walk in that deep stillness ere the night 

 sets in, and then it is that the lightly-loaded 

 gun insures their death with very little noise. 

 If these cunning old house-rats find out the 

 coops where young ducks are being reared by 

 hand, there is a method that often succeeds in 

 their capture by trap, and it is this* Put in the 

 water near the coop a small square, made by 

 rabbit-netting, of the larcjest 'mesh ; the house- 

 rat can get througli this and so can the young 



