41 o Practical Game Preserving. 



there are a great many more, some, however, so extremely 

 deadly as to render their employment a source of anxiety, 

 while others, instead of being poison to the vermin, are much 

 esteemed by them as food. 



The trap most generally to be adopted is naturally the 

 gin. as it is applicable in nearly all cases, besides being a 

 handier one than most of the others, which it can, if not 

 with benefit, at least very well take the place of. The gin 

 constructed purposely for rats is sometimes of the same 

 size as the one intended for such vermin as the stoat and 

 weasel, and is occasionally even smaller ; the size, however, 

 need not be so much an important consideration as the fact 

 of its working well, this comprising ease in "springing" 

 and a firm but not sharp snap. Those little, badly made, 

 exceedingly inferior gins termed bird and rat traps, which 

 nearly every ironmonger in the kingdom sells, chiefly to 

 boys bent on " cock-sparrow " catching and similar exciting 

 enjoyments, are of very little use, and although some will 

 catch and hold a rat, still they are as likely as not to remain 

 undrawn with the weight of twenty of the vermin on the 

 plate, or, if they act, fail to hold the animal which should 

 be caught. The price is, in most cases, about 55. 6d. per 

 dozen. Lane, of Wednesfield, Shave, of Birmingham, and 

 Bellamy, of Wolverhampton, make excellent rat traps, No. 3 

 of the first-named being good in manufacture, and decidedly 

 moderate in price ; it is 2jin. in the jaw, has a bow spring, 

 and is fitted with a good chain and swivel; the price, I2s. 

 the dozen by no means dear, considering the advantage 

 one has when using a good and well-made trap. The latter 

 makers turn out two sizes of gin, one a 3in. small vermin 



