114 PHEASANTS 



down a failure. "If I don't 'unt them, 

 they'd 'unt me," was his own terse 

 comment on the situation, and there is 

 little doubt that justifiable vulpecide is 

 less rare and more reasonable than hunt 

 authorities — to whom indeed it may only 

 seem a contradiction in terms — are willing 

 to admit. 



Since the above lines were written 

 there has been a discussion in the pages 

 of a magazine, largely devoted to the 

 hunting interest, as to the desirable 

 number of foxes to maintain. Many 

 expressed their views, but few seemed to 

 have any thought of making any allowance 

 for shooting neighbours, the general trend 

 of opinion being sufficiently expressed by 

 a single quotation from the many letters 

 published : — 



I do not believe that there are (or can be) too 

 many foxes in any hunting country. Personally I 

 have been an M.F.H. for 53 years, and have never 

 once found foxes too numerous. 



There is one other point, in approach- 

 ing which one must tread delicately ; it is 



