80 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



by the wings in the left hand, need only to be blown at by the 

 human face divine, to be set off in a furious state of screeching ; l 

 and all winged vermin who hear him, under the supposition that 

 he is mobbing an owl, or attacked by something, or that some 

 vermin has got hold of him, will come in an excited state to 

 mob the one offender or the other ; and I have had ten vermin 

 down to the gun at one spot before I thought of leaving off. 

 Magpies so taken occasionally will scream, and so will carrion 

 crows and rooks, but very rarely, their nature being much more 

 sullen ; a jay is infinitely the best decoy bird. When I first 

 came to Harrold, I could mimic the jay and crow sufficiently to 

 call others around me; but at last they were- so down upon that 

 dodge, that I had only to be heard to set what few there were 

 in full retreat. The next trap I put down was " the stone trap," 

 or false drain at the end of a ditch, where hedges led into the 

 woods. This trap is roughly built with stones, bricks, or turf, 

 about a yard long, and an entrance at either end, large enough 

 to admit a polecat, but nothing larger, and a small rat-trap set 

 in the middle of it, the way through being so narrow that 

 nothing can pass without being caught. The advantage of this 

 trap is, that it requires no bait, and can catch nothing but a 

 vermin, or a young rabbit. The next trap to this was a " dead 

 fall," made of any old wood, the rougher the better, and set on 

 a bank, or under a bank or wall ; it has two sides to it like a 

 common box or hutch-trap, and sets with a lever, button, and 

 bridge like the hutch-trap, only, instead of catching alive, the 

 roof of the trap, made of a heavy log of wood, or the roof, 

 weighted with stones, falls in and crushes whatever is beneath it. 

 This trap can be made large enough to kill a dog or cat ; but in 

 a fox-hunting country, of a size only to kill the lesser vermin. 



1 An abominable piece of cruelty, which I should like to omit from 

 the book altogether. People destroy the beautiful jays, and leave alone 

 the ugly jackdaws, which are just as mischievous, and, on our coasts, are 

 in a fair way of extirpating the gentle chough. Let both jays and jack- 

 daws be kept within reasonable limits ; there is plenty of room for 

 both. ED. 



