252 
THE RAT. 
should they be startled at the commencement by the spring- 
ing of a trap or two, they are taught to look with suspicion 
on them, and may not come near them again for weeks, if 
at all. But when they have been seasoned to them by run- 
ning in and out for " the feed," they become so familiar, that 
so far from avoiding them they will run into them for safety ; 
and thus may you catch rat after rat, till you have secured 
the whole. But when you are catching, and go the rounds, 
always have a small wire cage with you to run them into 
from the traps. This cage should have a fall at one end for 
them to run in at, and a door at the other, to empty them 
out into the store cage ; or, if you please, you can drown 
them first, and then throw them out. 
" There was another practice I had of drawing them, which 
was regulated according to the place I was employed at. If 
at a dog-kennel, I used to put some small pieces of boiled 
flesh inside the trap as well as the feed ; if in a slaughter- 
house, then some pieces of fat or fatgut ; if in a brew- 
house, or malthouse, then I would strew some of the best 
malt I could get ; if at a still- house, or mill, then some 
meal ; or in a barn, or granary, then some of the best corn, 
as well as the feed. In short, whatever food the place 
afforded them, the same I used to strew about, to lure them 
on to the feed. And now I will tell you how I made ' the 
feed.' Take one pound of good flour, three ounces of 
treacle, and six drops of the oil of caraways ; put them all 
into a bowl, and stir them well together, till it looks all 
alike ; then cut a pound of the crumb of bread into small 
pieces, and stir it up with the mixture. They like the bread 
mixed with their food better than the food alone, it being 
too luscious, for which reason they do not like it so well by 
itself ; but that night on which you catch put no bread to 
it, lest they should carry it away. 
" This was the only means I used for years for taking rats 
with the old hutch, traps, and I have caught some thou- 
sands. 
"I must tell you," says Joe, ''that every rat-catcher you 
meet professes to possess some great secret, unknown to any 
one but himself, and thus it is that they wear such an air 
of mystery and self-sufficiency. But, in every case, their 
mysterious knowledge only extends to the mixing of some 
