THE FOX 125 



will scratch himself to death, or become unfit to 

 live, if fastened up and not at liberty to use his 

 own remedy. The proof that foxes do recover 

 their health and strength after losing all their hair 

 or fur, is the fact of their showing extraordinary 

 sport with hounds ; indeed some of the best runs 

 on record are with mangy foxes. One of the best 

 the writer ever had with his own hounds was from 

 a patch of gorse on Ilsley Downs. The fox went 

 away almost in sight of the hounds, and continued 

 in sight of the men for several miles over the 

 downs, a racing pace, and was killed after forty 

 minutes almost without a check, when it was 

 found he had scarcely a hair on his body, and 

 not one on his brush, or rather what should have 

 been his brush. This run will not be forgotten by 

 many Oxonians. The writer had seen during the 

 run that the fox was mangy, and when in a wood, 

 and getting near a large breeding earth, he rode 

 wide of the hounds, and got on the earth just in 

 time to prevent the fox going in, and in conse- 

 quence she was killed within fifty yards of it ; and, 

 although it was a vixen, it was not a source of 

 regret, though so late in the season that the earths 

 were opened. It would have been no mercy to 

 have saved her, for if she had lived to breed a 

 litter of cubs, every one of them would have been 

 affected with the mange, and they would have 



