378 



SOMK FOX HI'NTKRS WORRIED. 



The publication of thesi' bountv payments, together 

 with the killing-, for premiums, of some tliirtv Red 

 Foxes in one week, in the West Chester Dailr Local 

 News — a newspaper which goes to nearly every home 

 in the County of Chester, with its populatic.n of 100,- 

 000 peojile— created quite a furore among Fcx hun- 

 ters who loved to pursue, but not destroy sly Reynard. 

 The objectionable scalp act was freely discussed, and 

 by s(,>nie rouridly "cussed."" The fox hunters, with, 

 possibly, a few exceptions, who condemned the bounty 

 of a dollar a head on Foxes, made little complaint 

 about the killing of Hawks, 0\y1s and other birds 

 which bad been captured and paid for, at seventy- 

 cents each (twenty cents to justice of the peace) to 

 the number of about 800. The claim was made 



"that it was n waste of public funds: the Fox was a badly 

 abused animal and he furnished lots ot sport: Hawks and Owls 

 were of little or no acount. and when they were killed off, the 

 large bounty payments would ooase and the money spent tor 

 them would, in future years bo found, so far as poultry and 

 g:ame interests wore concerned, to be a wise outlay." 



SOMK THINGS THEY DID. 



The members of the West Chester Jlici-oscopical So- 

 ciety, a body of well-informed scientitic men, did not 

 concur in the expressions quoted above, as can be 

 seen by turning to succeeding pages. These birds, 

 which devoured legions of destructive grasshoppers, 

 and beetles or thinned out the ileadow Mice, were not, 

 it is true, hunted by men in bright red coats, buttoned 

 high in front, nor were they followed by pedigreed 

 packs of baying hounds (that so often frightened tlie 

 sheep, and sometimes stampeded the cows) and swift, 

 high-priced, well-kept steeds, that tore the sod, or 



