THE ZooLocist—NovemsBeER, 1872. 3301 
see the eating part, and took the rat out of the trap and gave it to 
the birds. 
A day or two afterwards one of the watchers brought me two 
weasels he had trapped; I left them lying on the shoe-house table, 
but in the morning they were missing; I made enquiries about 
them, but no one had touched them. I then suspected the rats 
had demolished them, and asked the watcher to bring me another 
weasel if he could: he did so, and I put it into a rabbit-trap, 
leaving it on the same table, without ever thinking of fastening the 
trap, but judge my surprise when both weasel and trap were gone. 
I sought for them for some time, and at length found them. I saw 
the pin and part of the chain attached to the trap below a water- 
barrel which stood over one of their holes: the weasel was drawn 
down the hole, but the trap was too large for it; there had been no 
attempt to eat the weasel. I send you the skin of a mouse taken 
from one of their haunts, just as it was found: on showing it to a 
practical naturalist, he exclaimed, “Why, you’ve skinned it your- 
self and are trying to make game of me!” I may add that I have 
trapped more rats by placing traps as stated above, without any 
bait or covering, than by any other method I ever tried. I object 
to poisoning as they die in their holes, and cause a great nuisance 
from the smell that comes from them; it is also a delusion to 
consider them poisoned when all the phosphoric paste, &c., has 
disappeared: I have frequently found it stowed away in large 
quantities in holes covered up, without the bread it was spread 
upon even being touched. Another plan I have tried with success 
is as follows: in a room where old lumber was kept, and used also 
for keeping bran, &c., I stopped all the holes but one, and having 
got a slate with a hole at one end I put a long cord to it, and 
placed a piece of wood against the wall on each side of the hole 
the width of the slate, the pieces of wood ribbed loosely to keep 
the slate in its place after falling; the cord passed over a pulley at 
the top of the room above the hole and was carried through a 
window and fastened outside. I allowed it to remain for a few 
nights set, so as to accustom them to the alterations. I then went 
out quietly, and with a knife quickly cut the string, and down went 
the slate. Ithen armed myself with a short stick and a lantern, 
got in quickly and commenced the massacre: I killed eleven ina 
very short time, but as they got thinner I had more difficulty on 
account of the lumber; an old winnowing-machine they soon found 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, VII, 31 
