IN LIGHTER VEIN. 527 
Well to anyone in doubt as to which of the above three classes they belong I 
would say try one month’s trapping and you willsoon be convinced as to your 
correct class. During the first fortnight you are certain that you don’t even belong 
to the lowest of these classes but area pure and simple idiot. I think I am right 
in cautioning anyone wishing to start trapping not to use too many traps for a 
start, as you’ll get disgusted for a cert. Having gained your experience in 
setting traps and finding them again you may use your own discretion as to the 
number you set daily. After some months of this work I find 25 to 30 about 
right for me but I’ve been told of a collector who preferred 100 and over and 
was very successful with this number, but the placing of large numbers of 
traps takes time, which sometimes can’t be spared. I shall now proceed to give 
my readers all the tips I’ve collected re. trapping but fear that, being but a tyro 
myself, these are not as numerous as they might be. As nearly all my trapping 
has been done in heavy evergreen forest I will give you the tips for this type 
of ground. You will find old fallen tree trunks are a good spot to place traps 
as rats are very fond of making a run under or alongside these and often have 
their holes under them so as to have a tight roof over their heads and the 
last 10 or 15 feet of their road home dry also. These old logs seem to attract 
the smaller denizens of the forest in much the same way as a light at night 
attracts drunken men and insects, apparently an_ irresistable attraction. 
Under a mass of tangled creepers is also pretty good and if any tree shrews 
occur in the locality these are the spots they love and in such spots have 
Icaught many. Another good spotis amongst broken rocky ground so if you 
run across such ground pick on the likely looking spots and try your traps. 
Rats you'll find mostly visit the traps at night, tree shrews and some 
other wee beasties by day, so examine your traps at dawn and dusk and you 
won’t go far wrong. As regards changing your traps to fresh spots your 
bags will help to guide but I don’t think it is advisable to keep traps more than 
4 or 5 days in the same spots. The only baits ve used are, cocoanut, and dried 
fish, both of which ve found quite gocd and are easily procured in most 
places. Local natives can sometimes tell one of good baits and I always enquire 
of them regarding such. 
In suitable jungle the finding of good spots for your traps is not difficult, in 
fact is much easier than the rest of the job. Having set your traps you mark 
the spots where they are by any means you may think suitable, bits of paper or 
rag, blazing trees or any other method that may strike you, it won’t make 
much difference. In the morning you go to examine the catch and then it is 
that such facts as the following are brought home to you: That white (we will 
suppose paper or cloth of this colour to have been used in marking down your 
traps) which you fondly believed to be a colour strikingly conspicuous under any 
circumstances can be sometimes nearly as invisible as neutral grey. That a 
rotten log shaped at one end like a fantastic gargoyle which you thought was 
absolutely unmistakable can have two or three exact replicas in quite a small 
space. That spots seen with the sun in the west look very different when seen 
with the light the other way round. That if there's one track that resembles 
another there’s fifty, and a heap of other little facts (woodcraft I suppose you’d 
call them) which no doubt you would rather discover yourself than be told a 
word about. Blazing trees to mark your traps. I have used this method very 
successfully in jungles far from any villages, but if any natives wander in the 
vicinity of your traps it is fatal, as nothing seems more infectious than blazing 
trees and as the native as often as not carries a knife of sorts with him the 
finding of your traps on your next visit is likely te make you waste much valu- 
able time and language and throw your temper out of gear for the rest of the 
day. On the whole pieces of paper are better I think than blazing which I gave 
up the first time I had proof of its being highly infectious, 
Always see that the twig or peg, or whatever you tie your trap to, will stand 
