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Raccoon— Fish oil mixed with a few drops of anise oil and a little honey. Also 
fish oil, muskrat musk, anise oil. 
Weasel — Fish oil mixed with anise oil, asafcetida and oil of rhodium. 
Otter — Fish oil, mixed with anise oil. 
Opossum — Food, bird carcasses, rabbit meat or carrion. 
Fish oil prepared by cutting fish into small pieces and placed in uncovered, jar 
in the sun to decay. The oil should be poured off and corked in small containers. 
Scent should never be placed on the pan of the trap, but should be placed on a 
stick above the trap, being arranged so that the animal will have to step on the trap 
to get the scented bait." 
Skunks may be caught in traps set above an animal carcass buried 
just below the surface of the ground, or in a trap set at the foot of a tree 
with a carcass suspended a foot or two above the ground. A tainted trap 
in which a mink has recently been caught is apt to attract other minks in 
the neighbourhood. 
Most collectors have found pikas ( Ochotona ) difficult to trap, but 
Mr. Kenneth Racey of Vancouver showed the writer several beautiful 
specimens in winter coat that he trapped at entrances to holes in snowdrifts 
above their talus slope retreats. He states that the pikas sometimes come 
out in early winter and at times travel 50 feet or more to a bare rock 
exposed above the snow. Mr. Walter W. Dalquest (1939) states that he 
has had good success in trapping pikas at edge of talus slides, by using 
dried prunes for bait in rat traps. 
Some authorities advise baiting all small mammals with their natural 
food, but their food is not always known, and in the proper season the 
natural food is generally so plentiful that the animal will not have to go 
into traps for it. The same applies to most vegetable and fruit baits. 
Rolled oats are a standard bait for most rodents, although the writer 
has never found lemmings or tundra voles much attracted by it, and no 
wild animal in his experience seems to like beans, oatmeal porridge, or oat- 
meal when soaked by rain or dew. Loose bait of this kind should be 
sprinkled sparingly over the treadle and in front of the trap. Dried fruit, 
bits of vegetables, bread, etc., are taken by some species. Scraps of bacon 
rind, cheese (the older the better) , and dried fish are attractive to shrews, 
and are also liked by mice. Flying squirrels like pieces of fresh apple 
preferably cut so that the core and seeds show. Fresh fish, fresh meat, or 
carcasses from the skinning table may be used as bait for shrews and 
carnivores. 
The writer is accustomed to carry three or four small boxes of com- 
bination baits when trapping small mammals, one containing a mixture 
of rolled oats, bread and cake crumbs, and a few aniseeds, or a few drops 
of oil of aniseed or oil of caraway. This is a good bait for any kind of mice 
or voles. Another box is used to cater to shrews, and contains little pieces 
of raw or fried bacon rinds, bits of cheese, peanut butter, and dry fish; 
and if possible another box of bait the same as the last but flavoured by a 
few drops of oil of valerian or tincture of valerian. The valerian odour 
is attractive to insectivores, small carnivores, and apparently to mice also; 
at least mice are not repelled from the traps by the smell. 
One of the best all-round baits consists of a mixture of rolled oats, 
chopped-up raisins, and oily peanut butter; it has proved successful in 
temperate regions and in the tropics. Anthony (1925) gives as his most 
