Ground Vermin American Fox Trap. 385 



two, and further, when wild and uninitiated as to the merits 

 of living pussies, has a peculiar liking for their dead bodies, 

 and solemnises their funeral rites by rolling, jumping, and 

 gambolling around the carcases. Such eccentricities must, 

 of course, be taken due advantage of, and it is an excellent 

 plan to drag to a suitable site the bodies of any feline 

 poachers which may be killed, and set gins around them. 

 The carcase ought to be pegged down, and the gins placed 

 at intervals around at a distance of from ijft. to 2ft. from 

 it. We have also heard, but cannot bear personal testimony, 

 that the dead body of one of their kind will also attract 

 the varmints in a similar manner. 



When in Germany, a few years ago, we were shown a trap 

 used by the foresters in Bavaria to take foxes during winter, 

 and were further told that it had been in use many years. 

 The description tallies with the "new" American fox trap, 

 an enlarged edition of the similar mousetrap, and although 

 the fox trap is said to be both new and American, it appears 

 to be neither one nor the other ; however, we have observed 

 advertisements and illustrations of it, and have duly admired 

 a badly stuffed fox placed between the jaws of one 

 exhibited in a shop window near Charing Cross. Judging 

 from what we saw, the trap should catch a fox under any 

 circumstances, which, unfortunately, it will not do, and 

 only in one case is it of any practical value. We need 

 not go into any of the several reasons why the trap cannot 

 be employed with a view to catch foxes, except during 

 winter, when there is snow on the ground ; suffice it 

 to say that anyone at all acquainted with the animal will 

 very quickly see that an arrangement constructed upon 



