Ground Vermin Setting Traps for Foxes. 367 



the actual bait to distract the varmint's attention, something 

 likely to draw is also necessary. 



The employment of a drag of some sort is very often 

 essential to divert notice from or conceal the scent left by 

 the person attending to the gins, and for this purpose we 

 know nothing better than a dead fowl, trailed by a cord a 

 few yards behind one. It can be easily secured by a string, 

 and proving but little hindrance, is certainly worth what 

 small amount of trouble it entails. It also acts as a lure 

 to entice the fox in the direction of all or any of the traps 

 tilled for his discomfiture. 



When setting gins quite close to, or even on a fox's 

 run, one can in the latter instance till with some chance of 

 success, and need not use any bait. In such circumstances, 

 one must of course be quite certain that the site chosen is 

 situated upon a frequently traversed portion of a run, and, 

 being assured of this fact, proceed to search for such place 

 as the vermin must most certainly tread upon to pass 

 without deviating from its path. This determined, the 

 next operation is to set the trap, which must be done with 

 extreme care and dexterity. The gin should lie, as a 

 matter of course, at right angles to the direction in which 

 a fox may approach, and the spring be towards the right 

 hand when one is facing the side from which the wind is 

 blowing. This is, however, merely a secondary considera- 

 tion, but for preference we would have the trap placed in 

 the position named. 



The setting, of course, as far as concerns the actual 

 position of, and mode of covering, the gin, is identical with 

 that already described, and except the recommendation 



