42 



THE BROWN RAT IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Cage traps should be baited and left open for several nights until the 

 rats are accustomed to enter them to obtain food. They should 

 then be closed and freshly baited, when a large catch may be ex- 

 pected, especially of young rats. As many as 25, and even more, 

 partly grown rats have been taken at a time in one of these traps. 



Fig. 2.— Method of baiting guillotine trap. 



The editor of The Field (London), commenting on a letter from a 

 correspondent who complained of lack of success with the cage trap, 

 says: 



Rats are not fools and men are not always wise enough to circumvent them. We 

 have had this trap lying in the open and not a rat would touch it, but taken up and 

 a little refuse fish put into it and an old mat over it, we got some lovely specimens 

 next morning. A successful trapper says that even when he gets a rat in this trap he 

 does not disturb it, but feeds it, and sometimes he has 8 or 9 other rats come in to 

 keep it company, a 



The writer has had excellent success by concealing a cage trap 

 under a bunch of hay or straw, and has found by experience that a 

 decoy rat is useful. A commission merchant in Baltimore places 

 the baited cage trap inside of a wooden box having a hole in one end 

 and against which the opening of the trap is fitted. The box is then 

 covered with trash and large catches are made. 



Notwithstanding the fact that sometimes a large number of rats 

 may be taken at a time in cage traps, in the long run a few good 

 guillotine traps intelligently used will prove more effective. 



The old-fashioned box trap set with a figure-4 trigger is sometimes 

 useful to secure a wise old rat that refuses to be enticed into a modern 



a The Field (London), vol. 89, p. 692, May 1, 1897. 



