THE HOUSE. 



(SatiooB. They not only take i/f aming froln seeing their fellowa 

 oanght, but if one that has been captured be suflered to make its 

 escape the trap may as Well be removed, for nO more mice will be 

 caught. After a month or two it may' again be used with 



" During my residelice at college, the mice had been a fertile 

 source of annoyance. They nibbled My candles in two, so that 

 they would not stand upright ; they drank my nulk ; they 

 pattered with their little feet over my butter ; they raced about 

 'between the papered canvas and the stone Wall until the wall 

 was riddled with holes, made by a toasting-fork thrust through 

 the paper in the vain hope of spearing them ; they would run 

 across my carpet in the iflost Undisguised manner, until I 

 resolved to extirpate them. So 1 got a double trap, baited it 

 very temptingly, and set it itt the closet. ScarOely had the 

 door been closed When two smart bloWs told of the capture of 

 two mice. They were speedily immolated and the trap Set 

 again. During the first tWo or thfee days the trap was con- 

 stantly going off, until I was tited of going and taking out 

 the mice. The others, however, took warning and came more 

 and more sparingly, until it was a rare thirg to catch one young 

 mouse in a day, and after a week or so none were caught at 

 all, although the trap was baited with most savoury toasted 

 cheese, and my candles silffered as before. I then bethought 

 me of changing the bait, so after siifferiug the trap to be Well 

 aired and the scent of the cheese to evapOJrate, I substituted 

 a piece of tallow With great success, for the mice came nearly 

 OS fast as ever. When they began to dread the latter, a piece 

 of bacon was used as the bait, and by gystctoatically changing 

 the bait great numbers were caught. At last; however, the 

 mice seemed to comprehend that the trap Was in fault and not 

 the bait, and I had to substitute a four-t*ap, in which they 

 again came in multitudes, and as the descending weight was a 

 very large book several perished at once." 



The disadvantages of lettiiig a captured mouse escape are 

 three-fold. In the first place he consuines your bait profitleasly ; 

 m the second he conveys to his friends the full parti«tdar^ and 

 secret of your trap, and counsels them to avoid it ; sahA in the 

 third place you may pretty skfely rely that he himself wUl 

 never again be trapped, however artful may be the snare and 

 tempting the bait. Dr. Alfred Smee relates a curious instance 

 of this in his " Instinct and Reason." He captured a cominon 

 mouse, and instead of consigning it to the pail, or the jaws of 



