372 Practical Game Preserving. 



had mauled it, place the gins all round it, to the number of 

 three or four. More than this will be to no advantage, 

 and if the correct spots be chosen whereon to place the 

 several gins, the fox attempting the seizure of the fowl 

 should inevitably be caught. The traps should be placed 

 inclining to the form of a square, the length of them 

 parallel with the sides of the bait. The setting must on 

 no account be clumsy or hurried, and each gin should be 

 placed in position and tilled with all the care and cleverness 

 of manipulation which can be brought to bear. Hurried 

 work, when the catching of foxes is the aim in view, is of 

 no use at all, for unless each and every trap be set with 

 great pains, and a sharp eye given to the surroundings 

 and circumstances under which it is placed, the baits will 

 be lifted or the wiles remain unfruitful of any capture day 

 after day. 



As far as we can judge from our personal experience, it 

 seems quite evident that in such cases, when a fox discovers 

 a bait placed for the purpose of enticing it, it approaches 

 it with but a small amount of caution, trusting meanwhile 

 to its own powers of scent, &c., to make known the 

 existence of any danger. If such be correct and we are 

 inclined to think it is then everything in setting depends 

 solely upon the care and neatness with which the gins are 

 tilled. However, in most instances the existence of the 

 gins around the bait is the first cause of alarm, and once 

 having scented them, the fox, instead of hurrying away 

 takes pains by further search to discover the whereabouts 

 of the dangerous artifices, and having apparently done this 

 to its own satisfaction, proceeds to endeavour to obtain the 



