280 Practical Game Preserving. 



which, from experience, we are able to affirm effects its 

 purpose. 



Vermin trapping with the gin can be employed to a 

 reasonable extent throughout the whole year, but early 

 spring, when there is an abundance of young birds and 

 animals, and all through the winter, so long as the ground 

 is not too hardly frozen or too wet, are the seasons most 

 suited to it. Summer and autumn are not so favourable, 

 and unless one takes considerable trouble about the traps 

 little results are gained. 



We shall at present notice together the stoat, weasel, 

 and polecat, for, owing to the similarity of their habits, the 

 means employed to catch one are in most instances equally 

 suitable as regards the others. 



Besides the gin several other kinds of traps are employed 

 to catch vermin (i.e., stoats, weasels, and polecats), of the 

 utility of one or two of which we shall not fail to take 

 notice. But for all-round systematic vermin trapping the 

 gin will be found the most serviceable, as it can be employed 

 advantageously with or without those baits which to other 

 traps are indispensable. 



The question of bait is one requiring some consideration, 

 for in every case it must be something likely to entice the 

 vermin, and, at the same time, not be unlikely to occur 

 in the spot where the trap is placed. Pieces of flesh 

 more or less putrid, according to the fancy of the trapper 

 offal, fish, and the drawings of rabbits or birds and the 

 like, are the most frequently employed, but we consider the 

 last-named the most generally applicable and efficacious. 

 Fish, we think of little practical value, and when we have 



