98 KEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



incapable of holding or injuring a fox, in case, by any 

 accident, he should come to it. 



On taking a jay, the prisoner should be carried 

 to some ambush in the woods, the gunner selecting 

 a good place to hide, with a large tree within dis- 

 tance, some of the top limbs of which are bare. 

 The jay, which is a very garrulous bird, held by 

 the wings in the left hand, need only to be blown 

 at by the human face divine, to be set off in a 

 furious state of screeching; and all winged vermin 

 who hear him, under the supposition that he is 

 mobbing an owl, or attacked by something, or that 

 some vermin has got hold of him, will come in an 

 excited state to mob the one offender or the other; 

 and I have had ten vermin down to the gun at one 

 spot before I thought of leaving off. Magpies so 

 taken occasionally will scream, and so will carrion 

 crows and rooks, but very rarely, their nature being 

 much more sullen; a jay is infinitely the best decoy 

 bird. When I first came to Harrold, I could mimic 

 the jay and crow sufiiciently to call others around me ; 

 but at last they were so down upon that dodge, that 

 I had only to be heard to set what few there were in 

 full retreat. The next trap I put down was " the 

 stone trap," or false drain at the end of a ditch, where 

 hedges led into the woods. This trap is roughly 

 built with stones, bricks, or turf, about a yard long, 

 and an entrance at either end, larsfe enouo-h to admit 

 a polecat, but nothing larger, and a small rat-trap set 

 in the middle of it, the way through being so narrow 

 that nothing can pass without being caught. The 

 advantage of this trap is, that it requires no bait, 

 and can catch nothing but a vermin, or a young 

 rabbit. The next trap to this was a "dead fall," 

 made of any old wood, the rougher the better, and set 



