410 THE GAME PRESERVER'S GUIDE. 



vermin whose sensitive ears are always on the look-out for 

 sounds. The two openings are made because all animals are 

 more afraid of a cul de sac than of entering a clear passage, 

 their instinct or reason telling them that they are more safe 

 with two modes of escape than one. Hares and rabbits may 

 possibly be caught in these traps so set, but a living animal 

 will scare them, and if a dead one is used and any putrid 

 flesh which would attract the vermin is rubbed against the 

 thorns at the entrances to the central space, the hares and 

 rabbits, as well as pheasants, will be deterred from entering 

 it. Tf it is particularly necessary to avoid all risk of catching 

 any kind of game, the box-trap may be used, but for a cat it 

 should be fully four feet long and nine inches square. If set 

 it is well to conceal it by planting thorns all round it, and 

 spreading them out from the mouths also to make the 

 openings look less suspicious. The figure of 4 trap is useless 

 for these animals, which are strong enough to throw the 

 stone off unless it is of very unwieldy size. 



If the fox is to be trapped, which is necessary in some 

 countries where fox-hunting is quite impracticable, two or 

 three large steel traps are set in the same way as for the cat, 

 but with a central opening of at least five or six feet dia- 

 meter. A live fowl or duck makes the best bait, particularly 

 the latter, which will keep up an incessant quacking and 

 attract the fox from a long distance. Next to these is a half- 

 buried, dead rabbit or hare in a half-putrid state, which 

 will by its scent attract the fox, especially if a trail is laid up 

 to it. 



Polecats, stoats, and weasels may be readily taken in the 

 box-trap if it is nicely set and carefully concealed. In thick 

 hedges it may be placed in the meuses made by the hares, 

 which are sure to be vised also by these vermin, and even 

 without any bait it will often take them. But by fixing one 

 in a dry ditch and concealing its mouth with thorns in such 

 a way as to keep out hares, while the opening is large enough 

 to admit the stoat or weasel, the former are allowed to escape. 

 Some keepers raise the trap-door only half or three-quarters 

 of the way, but this plan is not so good as reducing the 

 opening by thorns. The polecat is said to raise this door 

 himself, but if it is made of wire, as shown in the plan at 



