286 Practical Game Preserving. 



be fairly numerous, that two well defined runs will be 

 formed along the tops. Such runs are much favoured 

 by stoats and weasels when upon their marauding expeditions, 

 and, if a bait be placed at the crossing, it is certain to be 

 remarked. For this purpose a bird, such as a pigeon or 

 small chicken, may be suspended in the air by means of 

 a stick stuck in at the most suitable point, and, moreover, 

 just sufficiently high to be out of the reach of either varmint. 

 This will cause any one of these animals that may be 

 passing to stop and try to obtain it, and hence it is obvious, 

 if a gin be skilfully tilled exactly under the bait, a weasel 

 or stoat cannot fail to be entrapped. 



Dry ditches adjacent to the hedgerow, or if of some depth, 

 running across a field, are also capital situations for gins, 

 which may be placed at intervals of considerable length 

 along the bottoms, a drag being employed to draw the 

 attention of any vermin to the ditch. In some cases drains 

 or dry watercourses for irrigating purposes pass under and 

 through a hedgerow, and just in the centre of the portion 

 of the ditch covered by the bank a trap may be carefully set, 

 as likely to prove efficacious. Mouths of such little bridges 

 or rather coverings of gutters, as are provided for the easier 

 crossing of carts, &c., are very suitable, and, in some cases, 

 fruitful situations for two traps, one at each extremity. In 

 such case no bait is necessary. 



If it be discovered that there are vermin located in a 

 plantation or small wood, should there be an earth bank 

 round it with a gapway partly filled with dead briars, thorn 

 bushes, pieces of tree branches, &c., a run will probably 

 exist through this conglomeration of stoppings, and a trap 



