THE. HUMANE- RABBIT TRAP [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
a constant reader Of the Spedator,-:I 'venture to write tci you .on the Subject of 'the R.S.P.C.A...Hitniane Rabbit Trap -CDnapetitioh; -to' which- you have -refer-Mir-Mare than
once. • -
• Front: phygicrtotieal- point of view can think of only two ways of using a trap to kill a wild rabbit instantaneously, i.e., either by strangling it, or by breaking its neck: In order to strangle it, -I had 'a trap made consisting of a wire noose attached to a coiled spring, which, when stretched, Would suddenly tighten the noose when the rabbit released the spring, by a very slight tug upon a hair trigger specially contrived for the purpoSe. This trap, however, failed partly because the spring had become-so weak by the time the noose had been drawn in, that no strangling power was left ; and partly because the trap' itself was necessarily conspicuous, and was, on that account, discredited by an experienced gamekeeper.
The sane objection seemed so obvious to any attempt to break a rabbit's neck with a similia trap, that I did not think it worth while to have one Made. '
Haring been baffled as to a sudden-death rabbit-trap; it Occurred to me that possibly rabbits might be suddenly killed in another way— viz: by driving them 'out of their holes by the use of some irritating gas or smoke, so that they might be caught in a net and killed at the mouth of the hole. •
On this supposition, I tried' (1) smoke from brown paper soaked in saltpetre solution, and blown in 'with bellows ; (2) fumes of sulphur similarly blown in with bellows ; (3) a series of various fireworks, which caused smoke, flashes, and explogions. All failed to drive out any rabbit.
Possibly some of your readers may have had similar bxperiences, and I should be glad to know how they have
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