Ground Vermin Trapping Foxes. 381 



it must not, so far as our experience goes, be imagined 

 that he is frightened to any considerable extent by the 

 presence of something of a suspicious nature, and, moreover, 

 carefully concealed. We have on many occasions known 

 foxes scratch earth back over not one gin, but eight or 

 ten in the same field, probably with a view to drawing 

 them, as the fact of several being thus sprung would 

 tend to prove ; further than this, in instances where baits 

 are employed, the fox will often abstract them without 

 being entrapped, consequent on hurried or careless setting. 

 We have mentioned the case of a fox's visit where 

 one discovers a rabbit lying near the gin drawn, and 

 the ground round about showing palpable signs of what 

 has occurred, the rabbit, moreover, half eaten and partly 

 mauled. Steps must immediately be adopted to put a 

 stop to such maraudings by catching the vermin committing 

 them. First of all, in the case where a gin tilled adjacent 

 to a hedgerow or bank has had the rabbit caught taken 

 out, remove the remains of the partly consumed capture 

 some fifteen to twenty-five yards from the scene of its 

 destruction, and, having chosen as suitable a position as 

 possible near to the hedge, peg down the carcase with 

 two or three wooden pegs provided with a crook, which 

 are best cut at the time from some bush near at hand. 

 The bait must be fixed tightly to the ground, and care 

 taken that none of the pegs show above the rabbit. The 

 traps must be placed in numbers according to the position 

 of the bait, one in front and one on each side, the 

 springs of the gins all pointing towards the right hand. 

 If there be any room for a fox to place its foot at the 



