Part 2

Sometimes when a Fox is found in the earth, or is hunted in, the method is to dig him out immediately, after the following manner; take a good terrier, that is kept for that purpose, one that will lie at a Fox, then you must listen and sound him as the warreners do their line ferrets; dig a trench across the angle, and, when you have got to the angle, perhaps he will fly back, as they frequently do, then sink another trench near him, and when you have dug down to him, take care he does not bite you, as he is a fierce animal, when drove to desperation, and bites very hard; in the next place take your dog back, that you may get him out, this is what we call drawing him, as follows; take an old hat, or any thing of a similar nature, in your hand, and dodge it before him, when he will catch hold of it immediately, then with the other hand catch him by the back part of the poll, with all possible quickness, as the motion must be, as it were, instantaneous; and this same method must be observed when you have one in a trap, if you have a mind to take him alive, and always remember to have a muzzle ready to put on him directly, and put him into a sack, and then you may do what you please with him afterwards; what I mean by a muzzle is this, take a bit of strong tape, put it over his nose, bring both ends down under his jaw, and tie them tight together; then bring it along under his throat, an inch and half from the first knot, then tie them both together in one knot again, then bring the two ends up behind his ears and tie them tight, and this is what I call a muzzle, in the same manner as warreners muzzle their dogs to drive to the nets.

Having proceeded thus far in my description, _&c._ of this remarkable animal, I conclude what I have to say of him with the following recipe to take a shy dog Fox, which I have known to succeed when all other means have proved ineffectual, and like wise with another observation, neither of which are generally known.

The trail for him is, when you have taken a bitch Fox, that goes a clicketing, take and cut that vessel which contains her sperm, the same as the sow-gelders deprive bitches of, when they spay them, mixing with this some gum mastic, and put them as soon as possible, after being taken from the animal, into an earthen pot, keeping it quite close, and it will remain serviceable a whole year, and, when occasion offers, take a large piece of rind of bacon, broil it well on a gridiron, and then dip it in the pot, using it as a trail, in the same manner as the sheep’s paunch before described.

The last remark I shall make is, that there is one season of the year when a Fox will not run after a trail at all, at least very rarely, and that is in the spring, when he gets plenty of young rabbits and leverets; for then he is dainty; when this is the case, another method must be taken: at this time of the year the bitch Fox goes what is called _a-clicketting_, you must mind which way he comes, which may be done by sifting some fine mould in all the little bye paths, and when you have discovered the right one, place two steel traps, about twenty yards distance from each other, for fear he should miss one, but lay no bate for him, and if he comes, there is the greatest probability of his being caught; I have often been forced to act in this manner, and have succeeded.

THE OTTER.

The Otter is an amphibious animal, which preys both by land and water, for when he is disturbed in the water he preys by land: as a proof of which, I once catched a dog Otter in a warren, where he came to prey on the rabbits, after the old bitch Otter and all the young cubs had been killed, down at the river, not far from the warren.

The Otter generally frequents rivers and brooks, in order to search for his prey, and will often come to fish-ponds likewise, destroying the fish, and yet not lie there; the method to discover his haunts is very easy, for, in whatever place he preys, you will be certain to find tails, or hinder parts of the fish, left undevoured, at the sides of the ponds, _&c._ for it is observable that he eats the head and body of the fish, as far as the vent, and very seldom any farther; look all round the pond, and by his marks or footsteps, you will find where he enters the pond, and likewise where he comes out to eat the fish by the side, for no amphibious animal devours his prey in the water, or can remain a single moment under it, longer than he can hold his breath. When you have discovered the place, it will be adviseable to put a good strong steel trap in the water, down in the mud; put the mud over the bridge of the trap as much as you can, that he may not discover the trap. I have catched several this way. If you should not happen to find where he takes the water, you will see where he sits to eat his fish, and then you must set a trap or two by the side of the water, in different places, where you find the bits of fish; cut a hole in the ground to let them in, just flush or even with the ground, then cover them over with moss very nicely: but, in my opinion, there is no necessity to bait them, for the Otter will seldom, I believe never, touch any thing but what he kills himself. I may possibly be mistaken in this point, but after many repeated trials never could get him to touch any bait I set for him.

The Otter in rivers and brooks has a kennel, which, with proper notice, as before given, you will find; the structure of it is very ingenious and admirable, indeed not equal to that of the beaver, though in some instances of a similar construction, for they always have two ways to go in and out, one by land and the other by water, for such is the cunningness and sagacity of these vermin towards their preservation, that if disturbed by land, they can vent or escape by water, and if attacked by water they can escape by land; now when you have found out these kennels, and discern that they use and frequent it, look carefully about and you will see some of his landing places, where he sits and eats his prey, and before the spot where he lands, there put a trap down in the water as already directed in the ponds, where I have caught them, and likewise destroyed all the young ones in the kennel, but know no bait in particular they are fond of, as before observed; though others may be of a contrary opinion.

In many places where I have been, small hounds have been employed in destroying these vermin, called Otter hounds; when one is unkennelled, he immediately goes to the bottom of the water, where he remains as long as his breath will hold out, which is a considerable time; he then goes under the bank, or under some reeds or boughs, there he draws breath and blubbers the water; the term when he is perceived by any of his pursuers is to say, There he vents; and they strike at him with a spear made for that purpose, and often kill him, but if the spear misses, he sets off again and the dogs follow, and if good seldom miss of killing him.

The above animal is not footed like other vermin, for they have a web between each claw, like many water fowls, which greatly accelerates their motion in swimming, when pursued by the dogs; they have no heel, but a round ball under the sole of the foot, the track of which is called their mark, and their dung is called their sprents.

THE BADGER.

He is a grey hard haired animal, a good deal of the pig kind; and is not near so hurtful as many other animals of the vermin kind; for the chief mischief he does, consists in scratching of earths, or holes, which afterwards serve for earth for the foxes to harbour in, and in scratching and grubbing up the ground, in searching after his food, such as pignuts and roots, on which, and on beach-mast, acorns, crabs, and other trash, he subsists, but does not prey on living things of any kind, as has been asserted by some authors, who have falsly affirmed that he destroys and lives on young lambs, pigs, and poultry; and in consequence of the simplicity of his food, I have known, in some places, people will eat them, being generally very fat, and their flesh exceedingly sweet.

I have practised two methods of taking the Badger with great success, the first of which is, when you have found out one of their earths, let two persons go out in the night, while they are in search of their food, and put a thin sack into the hole, and fasten it at the mouth, that the Badger may not run away with it; then let one person remain near the hole, while the other beats round the fields with a dog, in order to drive him home; when he finds the dog after him, he runs to his hole as fast as possible, and goes into the sack, which slips close like a purse; the party who stayed near the hole, on hearing his approach, lays hold of the mouth of the sack, and pulls out the Badger in it, and this method is termed, Sacking the Badger. Another way is to place a steel trap, in which you will catch him very easily, as he is nothing near so shy as the fox; when you come to his earths or holes, make the mouths of all the angles quite smooth, and come again the next morning, when you will see whether any have been in or gone out, and if you track him in and out, then put a trap in each earth, in the same manner as you did for the fox, and you need not fear catching him, but remember to stake down your trap, that he may not go away with it.

THE SHEEP-KILLING DOG.

This animal is extremely pernicious and detrimental, wherever he exists, for when once a Dog takes to killing sheep, he seldom or never leaves the practice off, in which he is extremely shy, and it is a very difficult matter to put a stop to his proceedings till you can discover his owner, which is no easy task, for if once he perceives you are tracing him home, he will go two or three miles another way.

If it happens that he should come in the night, and destroy any of your lambs or sheep, the circumstance becomes very alarming, and the farmer generally moves his sheep into another field or place, this certainly will baulk him for some small time, till he finds them again, and then the consequence is as bad as ever; I would therefore advise not to move your flocks at all, for the following reason, that by this means you may be the sooner able to destroy him. To this end, go early in the morning into the field where the sheep are, which is always customary, every morning, among the farmers, then you will find whether he has been amongst and killed any of them: if you perceive this to be the case, inspect carefully all round the field, whether you can track, or see the print of his feet, at any gate, stile, or gap, if there be one, if you look carefully it is ten to one but you trace his footsteps; this being done, you may prepare for him against night in the following manner: get two good steel traps, set one of them by the side of the gate, stile, or gap, where you imagine he enters, within side of the field, in the same manner as before directed for the fox in a cube trap, and cover the same, but do not handle the mould; then take the liver of the sheep or lamb he has devoured, cut them into slices, fry them in some good dripping, and put them on the back part of the cube; then take a piece of the flesh of the sheep or lamb, and rub it all about the gate or stile, _&c._ in order that he may be allured by the scent; then set another trap in the same manner at a different gate, for fear he should not come in the same way: a farmer is sometimes at a loss for these traps, but if he lives adjacent to any warren, he may easily borrow two of the true sort; but for fear of an accident it would not be amiss for the farmer to have them always by him. The above directions being put into execution, get a sheep’s paunch and draw a trail all round the field, as you do for the fox, and draw it up close to the mouth of each cube or trap, and by these means I have frequently catched several of them.

In some country places where they have none of the aforesaid traps, people are at a loss how to proceed, the subsequent method will supply their place in some measure, and be attended with success; when you have discovered in the morning, that he has been among the sheep over night, get some good dripping as big as a tennis ball, rasp two good figs of nux vomica, and mix them together, stiffened with a little flour; make several of these balls, and at evening trail a sheep’s paunch, tied to a string, to each gate, stile, or gap, where you imagine he enters, putting one of these balls at every place, fixt on the top of a small piece of stick, about six inches high, with the other end in the ground, which will prevent the mice from eating it; when you have trailed to one place, there stick the ball, trailing on to the next in like manner, till you have gone quite round the field; let this be done just at dark, and go again in the morning, and observe how many balls are gone, the remaining ones take up, and put them down again at night, and so proceed till you find he has swallowed some of them, of which there is no fear if he chance to come.

I have sometimes been greatly embarassed in catching him, though I have fully discovered the place at which he came into the field to destroy the sheep; for he was so extremely shy that he would not follow the trail, nor touch any bait laid for him. I then took the following method, _viz._ just at the gate where he came in, I procured two radded hurdles and put them close at one end, top and bottom; and at the extremity of the end so closed, I tied a live lamb, and at the other end where the opening was I set two steel traps close by each other, and in the room they did not fill up, I placed a large bush to supply the vacancy. These traps were covered very nicely, in the same manner as for the fox; the plan succeeded, and the arch thief was happily taken. If it should be a Dog that comes, procure some of the urine of a proud bitch, and rub it about the trail, or the bait, which will infallibly bring him on, let him be ever so shy, and induce him to go boldly up to the trap and be caught.

THE HOUSE CAT, TURNED WILD.

This domestic animal is so well known as to need no description here, and is very useful in a family, but frequently they will run wild in woods, parks, chaces, or forests, and do infinitely more mischief than many vermin naturally wild, and become entirely the reverse of what they were originally intended for.

They attack their prey with surprizing ferocity, equal to that of a tiger, and are very hurtful in gentlemens grounds, such as wood-walks, pheasantries, chicken-grounds, or places where poultry is kept; where they destroy the young pheasants, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and leverets. I have killed seven of these Cats in one week, in a gentleman’s chicken ground, where they came and destroyed almost all his Chinese and other pheasants, Bantam and Guinea fowls, and other curious poultry, both domestic and of foreign extraction, also his tame rabbits; on all which he set the greatest value. I have caught divers of them in a warren, who have rambled several miles to come for their prey, for there is a kind of these creatures, besides those that live in the woods, which generally reside about farm-houses, and at night go out to prowl, and are of no service to the owner. As a proof of this, a farmer happening to come to the warren, who lived about three miles distant, owned one of the cats killed that morning, which had left his house the preceding evening. I have caught thirty wild Cats in a season, at the same warren, and we had but two houses near us, upwards of a mile distant each way, by which it appears how far these animals will ramble in search of their prey.

I now proceed to the manner of taking them; when you find they come to any of the fore-mentioned places, get a common box trap, or hutch trap, [pl. II. fig. 1.] such as are used in warrens; let it be nine inches wide, full ten inches high in the clear, and three feet long. Let the standards A. A. be placed in the centre, on the top of the trap, ten inches from the end B. B. which must slide up and down in a groove; let the standards be twelve inches high, with a notch cut in each, two inches deep, and three quarters of an inch wide, that the swords C. C. may have free room to play by the side of each other. Let the bridge be eight inches square, and then there will be a clear inch in length for the bridge to play; then get a piece of wood, half an inch thick, and an inch and half square, make a hole in the middle, and place it at the bottom of the trap, up against the back, in the centre, afterwards put a nail through without a head, fasten it down to the bottom of the trap, the nail standing up half an inch, then there will be room for the bridge to hang on: make a hole at one end of the bridge, in the centre, place it on the nail; in the other end put a strong piece of wire, and cut a trigger-hole in the front of the trap, towards the bottom, exactly in the middle, three inches high, and half an inch wide, D. D. and be careful to have the inside of the trigger or tiller hole lined on each side the edges with narrow pieces of tin, which will prevent its being gnawed, and the trap from being defaced, for all vermin, whether cats, rats, _&c._ will constantly gnaw and scratch wherever they see light; then let the wire E, at the side of the bridge go through the trigger-hole D. D. a small matter turned up at the end, that it may hitch to the tiller, which is the small piece of wood tied to the end of the string, then fix a little bit of wood, F, half an inch above the trigger-hole, on the outside of the trap, as a stop for the trigger. But some people are apt to put the tiller in the hole, where it often hangs and prevents the trap from striking, whereas, if placed as directed, it cannot hang in the least, but must strike and take the enemy; whom, in order to secure, when taken, let a piece of wood, about half an inch high, be nailed to the bottom of the trap, on the inside, close to where the door falls, at each end; this will hinder any light from coming in, and prevent the vermin from scratching the door up again, as I have known it sometimes done.

The next step in the formation of the trap is, to take out a bit of the wood from the centre of the top board G, six inches wide, cut slanting on one side, and directly or straight down on the other, with a small tenant saw, which will waste but little of the board, and may readily be taken in and out, over the bridge, and is convenient to put the bait in. Fix a small piece of wood under the lid, the whole length, excepting the thickness of the sides, to keep it from sliding in or out, and on the even side of the lid, put two small wooden hasps, H. H. which will keep it fast on that side, and that side cut under or aslant holds fast likewise; then in the back part of the trap, in the centre, above the bridge, drive a nail through, and turn it up with a hook, to hang the bait on. I have now described the trap to catch this dangerous enemy, with the greatest minuteness, but for the reader’s better understanding the nature and meaning of the same, I have annexed a beautiful copper-plate, containing an exact view or representation of it, with references answering to the foregoing explanation.

This being done, take some valerian-powder, and scatter it in and about the trap, for they are fond of valerian-root to a degree of extravagancy, rolling themselves about when they come near it, purring, and seeming to be as it were in an extacy; if you have no valerian at hand, put some pieces of marem or cat-thyme into the trap, which they are likewise fond of. Now for your bait, take some fishes heads or bones, or a red herring, rubbing the end of the trap with the same, and hang it on the nail, in the back part, over the bridge: this they will eagerly catch at, it being an observation, that Cats love fish, but do not love to wet their feet; yet I have known an instance to the contrary, having observed one of these Cats take the water like a spaniel, after the water rats; but this is very rare and uncommon.