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HOW TO MAKE AND SET TRAPS

Including Hints on How to Trap Moles, Weasels, Otter, Rats, Squirrels
and Birds.

Also How to Cure Skins.

Copiously Illustrated.

by

J. HARRINGTON KEENE.







New York:
Frank Tousey, Publisher,
24 Union Square.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1902, by
Frank Tousey,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.


HOW TO MAKE AND SET TRAPS.




I. THE MOLE.


Dirt has been defined as “matter in the wrong place.” It is very
useful, and, indeed, indispensable, as earth in a garden, but decidedly
unbecoming and dirty when on your face or clothes. In a similar way,
most of the creatures termed “vermin” are in themselves very graceful
and beautiful specimens of the Creator’s handiwork, but when they
encroach on man’s paths of progress and improvement they become
“vermin,” and though all life should be looked upon as a fearful and
wonderful thing, not to be lightly taken from its possessor, they are
then justifiably slain.

The little gentleman in black velvet--the mole--is a lovely-coated
little fellow, possessing many virtues, such as courage, industry, and
parental affection, but when he once gets into your father’s garden,
which has probably cost money and exceeding care to render it neat
and productive, our little friend is transformed into one of the most
troublesome of “vermin,” and must be relentlessly sacrificed by the
trapper. If this is not done, Master Mole will himself sacrifice the
crops in his efforts to get at the worms, which, as the late Charles
Darwin so conclusively showed, are one of the great regenerating forces
of the land’s fertility.

Look at rats again. See how lithe and agile they are, how fond of their
young, and provident in storing food for future consumption; yet they
are without a redeeming excellency if, like dirt, they are in the wrong
place--as they are, by the way, pretty certain to be.

Of the squirrel Mr. Ruskin, in his marvelously eloquent way, has said:
“Of all quadrupeds... there is none so beautiful or so happy as the
squirrel. Innocent in all his ways, harmless in his food, playful as
a kitten, but without cruelty, and surpassing the dexterity of the
monkey, with the grace of a bird, the little dark-eyed miracle of the
forest goes from branch to branch more like a sunbeam than a living
thing. The chamois is slow to it, and the panther clumsy. It haunts
you, listens for you, hides from you, looks for you, loves you, as if
it were a plaything invented by the angel that walks by your children.”

Alas! there is a reverse side to this beautiful word-picture of the
great art critic. The gamekeeper will tell you that mischievous Master
“Squiggy” is very fond of birds’ eggs--many a tiny wren, and many a
sweet-voiced blackbird has discovered this also--and that he above all
will often suck the dove-hued eggs of the pheasant. Much, therefore, as
I admire this little creature when he is in his native firtree, I shall
tell you how to catch him alive, so that he may be kept away from doing
harm.

Again, the brilliant kingfisher, flashing by you like a beam of azure
light, is in his right place near the stickleback pond, but on my trout
river he is “vermin.” The same exposition of the properties of vermin
might be followed out in reference to all the creatures I intend to
hereafter teach you how to capture or destroy.

So much by way of introduction, and now suppose, as I have above
referred to “the little gentleman in the velvet suit,” we begin with
him. Do not be alarmed at the few items of natural history I am going
to give you in reference to each “varmint.” It is better for you
to know about the funny little ways of the lower creation now than
wait till you are men, and perhaps unable to devote much time to the
acquisition of such knowledge. Besides, there is nothing mean or paltry
in such studies. Why, the great German Heber and our hardly less great
Sir John Lubbock have devoted their lives to ants and such small fry
till marvels of intelligence in these insects have been unfolded to
their wondering vision. Even the wise and mighty King Solomon did
not forget them. Do not despise small things because they are small,
therefore, for are we not ourselves as motes and specks of dust in the
sunbeam in the immensity of God?

I most, however, return to the mole, or you may accuse me of preaching
a sermon when you were expecting to hear how to