maintain that the mongoose cannot compare with the ferret anytime, for
the simple reason that a small ferret can get anywhere that a Rat can,
whilst the mongoose must wait until the Rat comes out to feed. For
instance, if a board of a floor be left up for a mongoose to get under
the floor, it can only get into one of the joists; but a ferret can
follow a Rat wherever it goes. Then again, the Rats can smell a mongoose
even more strongly than they can smell a cat. So these facts prevent my
recommending a mongoose on any account. I have also heard of people
experimenting with different sorts of



DRUGS AND CHEMICALS


for enticing Rats out of their holes. I hope none of my readers will be
attracted with this device. I hold that there is nothing that will tempt
a Rat from its hole like hunger. The nearest approach that I have found
to entice the Rodent out of its hole is oil of aniseed or oil of rhodium,
but the 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