Tile Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
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lie makes splashing about in the water appears to attract rather than warn the others. We would 
only employ poison when all other means failed, not merely for humanity, but to avoid any danger 
to the chickens. The best poison is the following, recommended by Dr. Ure to the Council of the 
Royal Agricultural Society: — “Melt hog’s lard in a bottle plunged in water heated to about 150 
degrees of Fahrenheit ; introduce into it half an ounce of phosphorus for every pound of lard, then 
add a pint of proof spirit or whiskey ; cork the bottle firmly after its contents have been heated to 
[50 degrees, taking it at the same time out of the water, and agitate smartly till the phosphorus 
becomes uniformly diffused, forming a milky-looking liquid. This liquid, being cooled, will afford 
a white compound of phosphorus and lard, from which the spirit spontaneously separates, and may 
be poured off to be used again, for none of it enters into the combination ; but it merely serves to 
communite the phosphorus, and diffuse it in very fine particles through the lard. This compound, 
on being warmed very gently, may be poured out into a mixture of wheat flour and sugar, 
incorporated therewith, and then flavoured with oil of rhodium, or oil of aniseed, &c. This dough 
being made into pellets, is to be laid in rat-holes. By its luminousness in the dark it attracts 
their notice, and being agreeable to their palates and noses it is readily eaten, and proves 
certainly fatal.” 
Weasels and similar vermin only give trouble in very rural neighbourhoods. They generally 
come in a regular track, and may be caught in traps, baited with dead birds or chickens. They do 
not, like rats, care much for oil of rhodium ; but the whole tribe are fond of musk, and the bait 
may be scented with this to great advantage. 
Mice do no harm to chickens or eggs, though we have had houses so swarming with them 
that they would run out from under broody hens when examined at night. They however 
undermine the floor, and eat a great deal of the food. A good cat is the best preventive, and if 
brought up from kittenhood amongst the chickens may be left to pass the night with them with 
perfect safety. One of the best traps we know of is a plain sheet iron or tin vessel, about two feet 
deep, and open at the top. If one or two of these are put in the most over-run places, with some 
barley in the bottom, the mice will enter to feed, and are unable to jump or climb out of the 
smooth prison again. We have thus used one of the tins or iron barrels, holding about two 
bushels, in which paint is often sold, and caught seven or eight in one night. We confess, however, 
we never had the heart to be very hard upon mice, they have a knack of getting so tame. We 
have had them come out and feed within a yard of us in broad daylight ; and it is very hard 
to kill creatures that behave in such a confiding manner. 
Minks and Skunks are very destructive to poultry in America. The mink is pretty easily 
captured, as it is the nature of this animal always to return for its prey, and if missing to hunt 
about for it. If, therefore, a mink have left a chicken, and that be used for the bait of a trap 
set near the place, a capture is all but certain. The best trap is that known as the regular 
“mink-trap” in the United States. Skunks, on the contrary, after visiting a place may not 
again go near it for a long time, and the only effectual plan of trapping them is to set the 
trap near their burrows. Mr. Hungerford states, in the Rural New Yorker , that he has found 
one of the best skunk-traps to be a common barrel, nearly balancing it on its side in the middle, on 
a piece of wood about seven inches high, the mouth being inclined downwards. When the skunk 
goes in for his bait, which is put at the bottom of the barrel, as soon as he passes the centre 
it turns up, and he is caught. The only thing is to adjust the centre the proper height, so that 
the barrel may just have impetus to turn completely up on its bottom, without going over. Eggs 
half rotten, or a dead chick, are the best bait. Skunks are only troublesome at night, and by- 
housing the chicks in good sound wooden coops may be entirely checkmated. 
