CHAPTER XXXIV. 



GROUND VERMIN: The Capture of Polecats, Stoats, 



and Weasels. The General Details of 



Vermin Trapping. 



THESE three species of vermin are in their habits so much 

 alike that most of the methods employed for the capture 

 of one are more or less suitable for all. In the means to 

 be adopted there is some little variety, and while never 

 omitting to shoot or kill either of the pests whenever 

 occasion offers, about the only systematic manner in which 

 a continuous and successful check can be put upon their 

 depredations is by traps, and in some cases snares also. 



Foremost among the many traps adapted to vermin- 

 catching stands the common steel trap, or gin, which, 

 owing to its cheapness and suitability for nearly all situa- 

 tions and occasions, is usually adopted, while the others 

 are used as secondary aids, or adapted to instances where 

 they may be more likely to be productive of captures than 

 would the ordinary trap. Everyone who may have to 

 catch vermin is familiar with the old-fashioned steel trap, 

 but how to employ it with success and in a systematic 

 manner is not so well known, and but few, other than 

 experienced gamekeepers and trappers, are sufficiently well 

 versed in the niceties of the subject to warrant their taking 

 upon themselves the destruction and keeping down of the 

 vermin which may infest their preserves. By the old- 

 fashioned steel trap must be understood the old-fashioned 



