DRUGS AND CHEMICALS. 21 



of a floor be left up for a mongoose to 

 get under the floor, it can only get into one of 

 the joists; but a ferret can follow a Eat 

 wherever it goes. Then again, the Eats can 

 smell a mongoose even more strongly than 

 they can smell a cat. So these facts prevent 

 my recommending a mongoose on any account. 

 I have also heard of people experimenting with 

 different sorts of 



DRUGS AND CHEMICALS 



for enticing Eats out of their holes. I hope 

 none of my readers will be attracted with this 

 device. I hold that there is nothing that will 

 tempt a Eat from its hole like hunger. The 

 nearest approach that I have found to entice 

 the Eodent out of its hole is oil of aniseed or 

 oil of rhodium, but the latter is expensive. 

 I can rely best on oil of aniseed, because I 

 have often successfully tried it in experiment 

 upon the plate of a set trap. I have placed 

 only three or four drops of oil of aniseed upon 

 the plate of a set trap without bait, and often 

 the trap has closed and trapped the Eat by the 

 nose ; so that it will be seen that the Eat must 

 have been licking the plate, or it could not be 

 caught in that manner. I have also frequently 

 noticed when I have set, say, 20 traps covered 

 with meal and - sawdust mixed, that if I have 

 put only two drops of oil of aniseed on half the 



