WILD ANIMALS TRAINED TO HUNT 93 



the island. These proved the salvation of the 

 sugar-planters, for in a few years the alien carnivora 

 increased in numbers to such an extent as to cause 

 the plague of rats to be suppressed, thereby saving 

 the people a sum of about £150,000 a year. Mon- 

 gooses have since been introduced to Barbadoes, 

 Cuba, Costa, Rica, Santa Cruz, and Porto Rico 

 in order to continue the good work which they so 

 successfully accomplished in Jamaica. 



Foxes are the very latest addition to the ranks 

 of animals employed in the capture of rats, for we 

 read in a recent issue of the Daily Mail ; — 



In the quaint Derbyshire hamlet of Ambergate lives 

 John Gaunt, a famous rat-catcher. He is nearly sixty- 

 seven years of age, and is often to be seen over hiU and in 

 dale ■with his two tame foxes tucked under his arms. He 

 claims to be the only man in this country who has trained 

 foxes to work with ferrets. 



Whenever rats are numerous in any of the buildings 

 belonging to the Midland Railway it is customary for a 

 letter and a railway -psss to be sent to old John. He has 

 been killing railway rats for twenty-five years. When a 

 boy he was taught rat-catching by his father. He soon 

 found the work lucrative and adopted it as bis calling. 



' When a lad I kept killing a few rats in my spare time,' 

 he said, ' . . . and I gave such satisfaction that I got recom- 

 mended from one farm to another till I got known all 

 over the country. 



' Some twenty years ago I found a nest of foxes in a 

 wood and took one home. I trained him to kill rats and 

 broke him in to a ferret, and took him up and down the 

 country with me. Since then I've broken in about six 

 young foxes — and fine they are to work with. They can 

 follow a rat where a dog cannot, for, as you may know, a 

 iox is used to getting his living in the dark.' 



