126 THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN 



infected others. To have mangy foxes in a country 

 must be considered a great nuisance, and one way 

 of reducing the chances of getting them is by 

 destroying the earths, or, at all events, stopping 

 them up during the hunting season, according to 

 the plan hereafter described {vide Earth-stopping). 



The usual or rather the greatest age of foxes in 

 general does not appear to be very well known. 

 But that they live to the age of ten or twelve years 

 the writer has proved, by having hunted and killed 

 a fox with a short brush, which was called the 

 stump-tailed fox, and had been known and hunted 

 eight or nine years before he went into the country, 

 and which when killed had scarcely a tooth left, 

 indeed nothing but the stumps. 



Foxes are thought to run stoutest about the 

 middle of the winter, — from the beginning of 

 December to the end of January. And from the 

 circumstance that the fur of all animals is most 

 valuable in the midst of winter, it is fair to suppose 

 that they are stronger and in better condition at 

 that time, consequently more fit for work. But 

 after that time, in the month of February, the dog 

 foxes are much easier killed than in any other 

 month, owing to their travels at night after the 

 vixens, which travels continue till the month of 

 March, when it is still no uncommon thing to find 

 two or three dog foxes in the same wood ; but 



