336 HUNTING PRELIMINARIES. 



entering the place. The vixen' should come into residence 

 early in January, and if there are no wild foxes about, a dog 

 fox should be put along with her in the earth, which should 

 then be enclosed. If the prisoners are blessed with offspring, an 

 opening should be made in the fence, so that the whole family 

 may be able to get out. Whatever the old foxes do, the cubs 

 will never forget that this earth was their first home. They 

 can of course be supplied with dead rats, as before described. 



"Tom Firr believes that badgers kill cubs. Although badgers 

 are snappers up of unconsidered trifles, I hardly think that 

 they would go out of their way to add a cub to their menu, 

 which is large and varied. They certainly take poultry and 

 kill game and rabbits. I knew a case of a farmer who had 

 lost a large number of turkeys, and was making out a bill 

 which would have staggered humanity in the person of the 

 M.F.H., when a heavy snowstorm came, and another turkey 

 disappeared ; but the tracks in the snow showed that Mr. 

 Brock, not bold Reynard, was the culprit. That badger was 

 promptly dug out, and sent to the Zoo, where he lived at ease 

 for many years. A jealous vixen will sometimes kill another 

 vixen's cubs, and 1 have known two litters respectively 

 destroyed by the rival dams. The most curious case I ever 

 heard was that of a mangy old dog fox killing a whole litter 

 of cubs, and eating one, if not more of them, in a country 

 overflowing with game of all sorts. 



" A terrier should on no account be put into an artificial 

 earth, even as a last chance of a find for that day ; because 

 doing so will in all probability make the foxes forsake it. 



" The best material for a fox covert is gorse, which requires 

 a good deal of care, and will not grow well everywhere. It is 

 also liable to get killed by frost. One-third of a gorse 

 covert should be burned down regularly, as a covert of 

 this kind becomes hollow at the bottom in time. Although 

 Midland hedges consist chiefly of hawthorn ; blackthorn is 



