FERKETING. 13 



top storey first. The majority of floors are 

 laths and plaster. This is what the Eat likes, 

 especially the Brown Eat, and there are more 

 nests found in these places than anywhere else. 

 To ferret thoroughly in such places you will 

 require to have a board up at each end of the 

 floor : the two end boards that run crossways 

 with the joist ; then you must have a man to 

 put the ferret in at one end, and ferret one 

 joist at a time; have a net set at the other end. 

 The best way at the catching end is to have a 

 long sheet net about a yard wide, and the full 

 length of the boards that are up, for sometimes 

 under the boards the Eats can get out of one 

 joist into another, and if you use the long net 

 you can catch them whichever joist they bolt at. 



Now we will suppose you are ferreting a 

 seven- storey building, which might occupy 

 three or four days. If you have ferreted two 

 stories the first day, during the night the Eats 

 that have not been ferreted on the lower stories 

 may get back again to the top storey. 



How to prevent .this happening I will give 

 you a plan of my own, which I don't think any 

 Eat-catcher but myself has ever employed. 

 The course of action a rather expensive one 

 I admit is the following : While you have the 

 boards up you must go to the druggist and get 

 two shillings' worth of cayenne pepper, and put 



