Ground Vermin Traps for Foxes. 377 



offer much resistance to the stake, to employ a longer 

 one, and attach the trap by means of a chain about 

 3ft. long. In the event of a fox getting caught in a gin 

 thus provided, it makes the usual attempts to release 

 itself by jumping and pulling, and, in its excitement, 

 jumps or falls off the hedge, and being thus restrained, 

 must inevitably hang head downwards, when it dies in 

 a minute or two. This is certainly rather cruel, but less 

 so than letting the varmint escape with a trap on its leg 

 to die of slow starvation. In some cases it may be 

 considered necessary to adorn a particular place on 

 the inner side of the hedge with a trap also, from the 

 fact of its seeming a likely spot from which the fox, sup- 

 posing it to have escaped the other gins tilled for its 

 discomfiture, would jump down to the ground. 



When one has provided the one or more gateways of 

 a field with the gins necessary to assure the capture of 

 a fox in the event of one passing at the places indicated, 

 they may be left to do their work, giving them at least 

 three or four days to prove the accuracy of one's surmises 

 as to the places chosen being frequently passed over by 

 the varmints or not. If, however, nothing, unfortunately, 

 results, and the cunningly concealed traps remain withont 

 effecting any capture, then we may take it that we are 

 not actually on the right track, and must, therefore, 

 commence a close scrutiny of the boundaries of the field 

 with a view to discover the correct place at which to 

 set the gins, and one likely to be more productive of 

 favourable results. 



There are often in the fields adjacent to coverts or 



