THE WARREN 79 



are wonderfully quick in detecting the taint of the 

 human hand. 



The second mode of catching stoats and weasels 

 is by means of a good-sized box-trap, not single, like a 

 mouse-trap, but double — that is, to opeii at both ends ; 

 and it may be either baited with a strong smelling 

 bait, or have an unbailed gin set in the middle of it. 

 A stoat or weasel is more likely to enter a box-trap if 

 he can see daylight through it than if it be closed at 

 one end like a mouse-trap. For this reason it will 

 often answer well to place a gin in a culvert or drain, 

 or set one (unbailed) at each end. A modification of 

 this plan is to set a few slates or tiles in a sloping 

 position, and in a row against the foot of a wall with 

 an unbailed gin behind them on the ground. We 

 have caught many a rat by this plan, and it is equally 

 efficacious for weasels. For our own part, however, 

 we would not ruthlessly trap and kill every weasel 

 and stoat on the warren. A few of these animals, if 

 left to their own devices, are useful in checking too 

 abundant an increase of rabbits, and, indirectly, im- 

 proving the stock by killing the weakly ones, which 

 are more easily captured. 



The utility of the weasel, in checking the devasta- 

 tion of field mice, has never been more clearly 

 established than by the evidence which was tendered 



