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paraffin wax or parawax for a minute or two and then draining off. The 
dipping works better if the trap is fairly warm when dipped, and the wax 
hot, because then the wax is absorbed by the wood instead of congealing 
on the surface. Two or three paraffin candles melted in a frying pan will 
do the work. Paraffin waterproofs the traps and as it is inert is appar- 
ently not distasteful to the animals. In very hot desert regions difficulty 
has been caused by the sun melting the wax out of the wood. Fine 
sand blowing into this makes a valve-grinding compound which clogs the 
mechanism and may prevent a small mammal from springing the trap. 
Shellac, dissolved in alcohol, has been used with success on wooden parts 
of some of our traps, but extreme care has to be used to keep shellac off 
the metal parts of the trap as it sets or becomes stiff, and in this way 
has saved the lives of many small mammals. 
The all-metal (galvanized or painted) traps, such as the Schuyler 
model, are useful, particularly in water-sets, for water shrews and the 
like, and some makes of small tin “choker’' traps are of use for setting 
against horizontal entrances to holes. Traps which have too much metal 
surface in contact sometimes cause trouble by “freezing” or cohesion of 
the parts, and “hang fire” or fail to spring properly. The metal parts 
of any trap should be gone over occasionally to remove rust and metal 
bearings should receive a drop of oil occasionally. Although keeping in 
general to the well-tried standard traps that are in common use, it is 
well for the collector to experiment a bit and have a few of the odd kinds 
of traps for special uses. The scientific collector may run across animals 
that the trap-makers never heard of and is always likely to learn some- 
thing new while trying to catch them. 
One of the principal secrets of success in trapping small mammals is 
to have plenty of traps and keep them working. The writer has followed 
a plan of setting small traps in all the likely places, and a few extra ones 
in unlikely places for the straggler or the unexpected species. Man is far 
from knowing the habits of all the mammals. 
In passing, it may be said that the most effective way to rid houses of 
rats and mice is to use two or three dozen trap? instead of one or two, and 
set them in every corner, along the baseboards, behind boxes and barrels, 
and at every hole, so that if the animals miss one trap, they will be apt to 
find another. With mouse traps at $1 a dozen it does not pay to be sparing 
of them. 
Pocket Gophers 
Pocket gophers work under ground and are seldom seen on the surface 
in the daytime, but their presence in any district is obvious from the piles 
of small earth pellets thrown up from their workings. The tunnels, which 
are usually 3 to 8 inches below the surface of the ground, may be found 
by probing near the mounds, and a section of the roof of the tunnel may 
be removed and a trap placed in the runway. The hole should then be 
carefully closed with a slab of sod or piece of board to exclude light. The 
ordinary steel trap may be used in pocket gopher runways, but much 
better results can be obtained with some of the special pocket gopher traps 
that are on the market. 
