Ground Vermin Scares for Foxes. 387 



which are necessary, set above it, when the effect is the 

 same as before. As to the American trap, it is exactly 

 similar to the cat trap, described and illustrated in a former 

 chapter, with the exception that it is several times larger 

 and stronger ; but, as before mentioned, the arrangement 

 is so extremely unpractical that it cannot be used with any 

 chance of satisfaction. 



When foxes have attacked poultry, they but rarely repeat 

 the experiment within a short time, and we would therefore 

 simply advise that ducks and fowls, kept in localities where 

 foxes are numerous, should be provided with roosting places 

 absolutely secure from vulpine ingress. However, where 

 pheasants or other game are hand-reared in coops, the foxes 

 will continually come round them at night, hoping, no doubt, 

 to secure a tasty young bird or so. When this happens to 

 be the case, a few gins should always be set every night 

 close to the coops ; the tilling need not be very careful, 

 but sufficiently so to be efficacious in the event of a visit. 



Young pheasants and partridges are particularly liable to 

 be captured by foxes, and more especially at night when 

 they are at roost. Obviously in such cases any means 

 taken to catch the vermin may also unfortunately effect the 

 capture of some birds too, and consequently, means must 

 be taken to scare the vermin away. One of the best 

 plans usually adopted is to obtain old pieces of tin, and, 

 having cut them into jagged form, fix them each in a stick 

 about i ft. or so long; fix them up about the ground where 

 the birds are likely to be. They act in this manner as 

 imitation traps, and when further evidence of their existence 

 is given by using some such offensive smelling substance 



