st favourite food, which
should be of the kind that has the strongest scent, such as toasted
cheese, or broiled red-herring, from the holes or entrances to their
accesses in every part of the house, or contiguous buildings, whence it
is intended to allure them. At the extremities, and in different parts
of the course of this trailed tract, small quantities of meal, or any
other kind of their food, should be laid, to bring the greater number
into the tracks, and to encourage them to pursue it to the centre place,
where they are intended to be taken; at that place, where time admits of
it, a more plentiful repast is laid for them, and the trailing repeated
for two or three nights. But besides this trailing, and way-baiting,
some of the most expert of the rat-catchers have a shorter, and,
perhaps, more effectual method of bringing them together, which is, the
calling them, by making such a kind of whistling noise as resembles
their own call, and by this means, with the assistance of the way-baits,
they call them out of their holes, and lead them to the repast prepared
for them at the place designed for taking them. But this is much more
difficult to be practised than the art of trailing; for the learning the
exact notes, or cries, of any kind of beasts or birds, so as to deceive
them, is a peculiar talent, not easily attained to in other cases. And
in practising either of these methods, great caution must be used by the
operator to suppress, and prevent, the scent of his feet and body from
being perceived; which is done by overpowering that scent by others of a
stronger nature. In order to this the feet are to be covered with cloths
rubbed over with assafoetida, or other strong smelling substances; and
even oil of rhodium is sometimes used for this purpose, but sparingly,
on account of its dearness, though it has a very alluring, as well as
disguising effect. If this caution of avoiding the scent of the
operator's feet, near the track, and in the place where the rats are
proposed to be collected, be not properly observed, it will very much
obstruct the success of the attempt to take them; for they are very shy
of coming where the scent of human feet lies very fresh, and intimates,
to their sagacious instinct, the presence of human creatures, whom they
naturally dread. To the above-mentioned means of alluring by trailing,
way-baiting, and calling, is added another of very material efficacy,
which is the use of the oil of rhod