EVERLASTING QUESTION 123 



the furthest limit of the vixen's round. 

 For this purpose live or fresh-killed 

 rabbits, snared or trapped, young rooks, 

 rats, stoats, weasels, waterhens or pigeons 

 can be used. They should be handled as 

 little as possible, and the considerable 

 labour involved in thus catering for the 

 family will be well repaid, if all the time 

 the vixen would otherwise have spent in 

 hunting be given up to collecting such 

 inconsidered trifles, easily obtainable on 

 most estates. This system, however, 

 though admirable on paper, has in practice 

 been found unworkable by several good 

 keepers, the vixen failing to play her 

 assigned part. 



To kill the vixen and rear the cubs by 

 hand is a common practice among keepers, 

 who find in it a simple solution of their 

 difficulties. But it is not a policy that 

 can be commended from any point of 

 view. The cubs are undeniably bad for 

 the huntsman, familiarity has given them 

 an undesirable contempt for man and his 

 ways, while they always show marked 



