414 Practical Game Preserving. 



the floor of the gins and just outside being sprinkled with 

 fine sawdust or sand. When the baits are regularly taken 

 by rats, evident from the footprints left in the sawdust, the 

 traps may be untied and set to catch, the hands being dis- 

 guised so as to leave no smell to alarm the vermin. By the 

 repetition of this mode of procedure for a time or two, a 

 considerable number of rats may be caught, and, being 

 alive, provide good sport for the terriers at hand ; if there 

 be no dogs, the traps may be opened with one foot, while 

 a spade smartly dropped on the escaping rats is a most 

 effectual mode of ending their days. 



There are many modifications of the box-trap which can 

 be used with much greater success than the article in its 

 usual form, but they vary to so small an extent that there 

 is no occasion to describe them. Anyone using traps a 

 little, and gaining experience, will soon find opportunities 

 for putting into practice such ideas as may be suggested by 

 actual occurrences. 



An alleged improvement is the wire rat trap, that is, a 

 sort of cage, measuring i4in. long by yin. wide and 6in. 

 high, which renders it at all times a very conspicuous 

 object, and one decidedly suspicious ; it is, in action, the 

 same as the old trap, a zinc door being pushed down by a 

 wire frame, acted upon by a coiled spring ; a hook sustains 

 the bait, which, on being touched pretty hardly, releases or 

 should release the wire attached to the door ; it is, however, 

 at best a remarkably poor contrivance, and even with the 

 addition of a complicated trigger, a bad imitation of the 

 High Elms trap, with a flap entrance at one corner. It is 

 not half worth the money it costs, from 35. 6d. to 43. 6d. 



