CHAPTER XXXV. 



GROUND VERMIN: Capture of Polecats, Stoats, 

 Poaching Cats and Weasels (continued). 



I HAVE now mentioned all the more practicable uses of 

 the gin when employed for the capture of vermin, and 

 will pass, therefore, to traps of different and, in some 

 cases, more complicated construction, nearly all of which 

 kill when they catch. Amongst these, the cheapest, most 

 useful and successful, is what is called the " Figure of 

 Four Trap." This trap derives its name from the fact 

 that a flat heavy weight is supported by an arrangement of 

 three pieces of wood so cut and fitted together that they 

 resemble a 4, and from the end of one of which pieces is 

 suspended a bait, so that the slightest touch from any 

 varmint causes the whole to collapse, the result being that 

 the luckless animal, whatever it may be, is crushed by the 

 falling weight. 



There are one or two different ways of making the 4, 

 the best being as follows : The trap consists of three un- 

 equal lengths of wood (see Fig. 37) ; the longest piece (A), 

 named generally "the stretcher," should be i3in. long, 

 ^in. wide, and fin. thick ; it should have three notches cut 

 in it, about Jin. deep, two close to one another at one 

 end, and the other cut in a slanting direction, 4^in. from 

 the last of the two at the extremity ; the centre notch, it 

 will be observed, is cut slantingly, and at the same time in 



