NATURK STUDY. 
I76 
there would be no earth under the latter. The last process 
was to slowly sift earth over the trap and the entire bed, 
obliterating all traces of the'trapper. Bait was scattered 
over the bed as before and after the first experience that 
one must have in everything rarely did Mr. Huse fail, sooner 
or later, to outwit his wily game. 
Once when the trap was placed near the center of a bed 
the fox that frequented the locality came every night, took 
all the bait and stepped everywhere except where the trap 
was. One day the trap was taken up and placed near the 
edge of the bed. The next morning the fox was there. 
In the winter the bed was made of chaff or dry horse 
manure. Then the seive and snow scooped up some 
distance away would make the bed and the neccessary 
tracks look old enough to escape suspicion. 
The New Star. Nova Persei. 
BY GUORGK I. HOPKINS. 
Since the preparation of the last number a most interest¬ 
ing astronomical event has been chronicled. On February 
21 Dr. Anderson of Edinburgh, Scotland, an amateur as¬ 
tronomer, discovered a new star, of about the tenth magni¬ 
tude, in the constellation Perseus. It rapidly increased 
in brightness until a maximum was reached on the morn¬ 
ing of the 24th, three days later. It was then brighter 
than a star of the first magnitude, consequently rivaling 
all in its neighborhood. Since then it has gradually but 
steadily declined in brightness, until at the present writing 
it does not exceed the fifth or sixth magnitude, being just 
visible to the unaided eye. 
If the reader has not yet been able to locate it^ and it 
should still remain, visible, the following directions will 
enable him to do so. The constellation Perseus is now in 
