266 THE BOOK OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



for I have known a Dog Fox kill more Pheasants and Fowls in one 

 night than he and his family could eat in a fortnight. However, 

 after one of these big hauls he is always thrifty enough to bury as 

 much of it for future use as he can. 



It is really wonderful how the Fox holds his own as he does, 

 considering the many enemies he makes for himself by his raids 

 on the poultry yard and game preserve. I have known many neatly 

 laid plans for his destruction, but it is seldom he can be brought to 

 book, owing to his keen sense of smell, observation and wary ways. 

 Of course he may be poisoned, and unfortunately often is by those 

 selfish enough to think of nobody else's interests and pleasures but 

 their own. To lay down poison is, besides being illegal, one of the 

 most cowardly actions imaginable, suspicion and punishment often 

 resting on the wrong person as a result. 



A poisoned Fox will often die some distance from where the 

 poison was picked up, and perhaps on another's land. To trap in 

 hopes of having revenge for some paltry loss of Poultry or 

 Pheasants, which most hunts are willing to compensate for, is bad 

 enough, but in this case Reynard has a hundred-to-one chance, for 

 it is rarely that he is going to be caught by the ordinary methods 

 of vermin trapping. 



A keeper well known to me has been trapping vermin and 

 Rabbits for over thirty years in many parts of the country where 

 Foxes have been plentiful, and he tells me that he has never had the 

 misfortune to catch a Fox. His vermin traps have been baited, too, 

 with all kinds of birds and other animals, many of which are con- 

 sidered delicacies by Reynard. He never allows such traps to 

 remain too long set in one place, and renews the bait often enough, 

 hence the secret of trapping where Foxes are preserved. To catch 

 a Fox in a freshly baited trap is very improbable, if not impos- 

 sible. Rabbit traps left unattended for weeks are liable to do 

 harm in this way. Run traps may catch cubs if set anywhere near 

 the earth. 



A friend of mine once caught a cub in a drain-pipe where he 

 always kept a trap set for Stoats. The little chap got his pad rather 

 badly crushed, but after a few dressings he soon got well. Through 

 being constantly handled he also became tame to a certain extent, 

 but never wholly so. He became a great pet and was kept tied up 

 to a small box-kennel in the corner of a yard. When he was about 

 a year old he took to killing poultry, and got so bad at this that it 



