Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher | Page 7

latter is expensive. I can rely best on oil of aniseed, because I have
often successfully tried it in experiment upon the plate of a set trap. I
have placed only three or four drops of oil of aniseed upon the plate of
a set trap without bait, and often the trap has closed and trapped the Rat
by the nose; so that it will be seen that the Rat must have been licking
the plate, or it could not be caught in that manner. I have also
frequently noticed when I have set, say, 20 traps covered with meal and
sawdust mixed, that if I have put only two drops of oil of aniseed on
half the traps I should find next morning on looking at the traps that
most Rats are in those in which I had placed the aniseed. I think that oil
of rhodium and oil of aniseed are very good to drop on the traps after
setting, or to mix with the stuff with which the traps are covered.
There is also another way of bolting Rats. Sometimes when the ferret is
put under a boarded floor, all the Rats will run together and pack
themselves in a heap at the end of a joist. When the Rats pack
themselves on each other thus, the ferret on reaching them will tackle
only one at a time. You can always tell when this happens by the ferret
working a long time and bolting no Rats. Now, immediately you notice
this, put your mouth near the hole where you have put the ferrets in,
and make a squealing noise with your mouth to imitate a squealing Rat.
This causes the heap of Rats at the end of the joist to disperse through
fear, and when they get running about they will bolt into the net. Many
times I have not had a bolt for half-an-hour and when I have squealed
at the hole I have had four or five Rats in the nets at once.
These are some of the methods of clearing Rats from various places,

and from experience I think they excel all others.


PART II. HOW TO KEEP AND WORK
FERRETS.
The first necessity in ferret-keeping is that they shall be kept in hutches
or "cotes," as they are commonly called. Care must always be taken to
have their places well swilled with carbolic water, and then allowed to
thoroughly dry before whitewashing the inside, which is also essential
to keep them healthy. This should be done at least four times a year.
Always have your hutches leaning from the wall, so that wet or refuse
will not lodge, for when the bottom of a hutch is always wet it is liable
to give the ferrets a disease called foot rot, which is very frequent
where ferrets are neglected. Always keep the feeding part of the hutch
well covered with sawdust.
In feeding ferrets for the purpose of Rat-catching, never do so before
going out with them; I think it is quite sufficient to feed them every 24
hours. If you feed them oftener they are liable to get too fat, and also
lazy and unwilling to work as they should. The best food you can give
them is bread and milk, and occasionally a little raw liver. Mix the
bread and milk with a little hot water, stir well with a spoon or squeeze
through your fingers, so that the ferrets will have to eat it where you
feed them; if not they will carry the large pieces of bread that are wet
into the corners of the sleeping place, which would soon cause that part
of the hutch to smell very sour and become injurious to the health of
the ferret, especially where four or five are kept together, as they are of
a very perspiring nature. Always give them plenty of room to run about
when you can; if you don't they are likely to take cramp.
Ferrets are usually subject to distemper. The first symptom is the
ferret's neglect of its food. When you see this you will observe a little
matter at the corner of the eyes, and the ferret will have a slight running

at the nostrils. Immediately you see these symptoms separate that ferret
from the others, as this is, I think, the worst disease one has to contend
with.
In the whole of my ferret-keeping experience I have found distemper, if
caught in time, can be cured; but if it gets too far I know of no cure for
it. I have known a gamekeeper to have dogs with the distemper, and he
has not touched his ferrets or handled them at all during the time his
dogs were bad, yet a week afterwards his ferrets