CHAPTER XXXIIL GROUND 

 VERMIN. 



CAPTURE OF STOATS, POLECATS, WEASELS, AND CATS 



(Continued). 



WE have now mentioned all the more practicable uses 

 of the gin when employed for the capture of vermin, 

 and will pass, therefore, to traps of different and, in some 

 cases, more complicated construction, nearly all of which kill 

 when they catch. Amongst these, the cheapest, most useful, 

 and successful, is what is called the " Figure of Four Trap." 



This trap derives its name from the fact that a flat heavy 

 weight is supported by an arrangement of three pieces of 

 wood so cut and fitted together that they resemble a 4 

 and from the end of one of which pieces is suspended a 

 bait, so that the slightest touch from any varmint causes 

 the whole to collapse, the result being that the luckless 

 animal, whatever it may be, is crushed by the falling weight. 



There are one or two different ways of making the 4> 

 varying, however, very little one from another, and of very 

 little difference in working value ; but what we are inclined 

 to consider the best manner in which to make it is as 



u 2 



