THE SLAUGHTER OF VERMIN. 331 



When trapping flying vermin, especially egg- 

 suckers in the open, a great many precautions 

 are necessary. Take a hen's egg and seal it to 

 the plate of a trap, set the trap in the open 

 fields, covering it up so that only the egg itself 

 is visible. Keep your traps well oiled, so that 

 they play quickly and easily, the least tap of 

 the bird's beak springing the trap, and causing 

 it to catch the bird by the neck. If the trap 

 springs slow and strikes low it will probably 

 only chop off the beak of the bird, so you will 

 find the beak in the trap and the bird gone, 

 the latter afterwards living in constant pain 

 and misery all through your carelessness or 

 ignorance. If you want to be a good and 

 humane trapper and it is only fair to presume 

 that you do see that the traps are well oiled 

 and catch high. 



Some masters will not allow traps to be set 

 in the open ; Mr. Fowle would only permit a 

 few to be so set, and those few had to be 

 placed in boxes or special drains, as he was 

 very much afraid that his foxes might put their 

 feet into the wrong place. Mr. Fowle used to 



