38 CARNIVORA 



Library (" Hunting," p. 63), " hunted he must be ; if he is to 

 exist at all, it is his raison d'etre." At the present time there 

 are ten packs of fox-hounds in Scotland, all located south of 

 the Firths of Tay and Clyde. Six of them hunt the eastern 

 division, namely the Fife hounds, 50 couples (kennels at 

 Harleswynd, Ceres) ; the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire, 35 

 couples (Golf Hall, Corstorphine) ; the Berwickshire, 35 

 couples (Belchester, Coldstream) ; the Duke of Buccleuch's, 57 

 couples (St Boswell's, Roxburghshire) ; Mr Scott-Plummer's, 

 20 couples (Sunderland Hall, Selkirk) ; and the Jedforest 

 (Lintalee, Jedburgh). During the season 1890-91 the Lin- 

 lithgow and Stirlingshire pack killed 24| brace of foxes, as I 

 am informed by Mr E. Cotesworth, the huntsman, who 

 adds that the yearly average is about 25 brace. Mr W. 

 Shore, the huntsman of the Duke of Buccleuch's pack, tells 

 me that they usually kill about 30 brace in a season. From 

 these statements I estimate that the six packs kill over 

 250 foxes per annum. Of course, a good many more are 

 quietly got rid of in less demonstrative ways, even in the 

 heart of the hunting areas; and in the hilly districts the 

 keepers and shepherds openly capture or destroy all they 

 can. Live cubs are readily disposed of at from 10s. to 15s. 

 a-piece, to be turned out in hunting districts, chiefly in 

 England. In the spring of 1889 a litter of five was dug out 

 of an earth on the Pentlands above Dreghorn. A vixen and 

 her six cubs, taken on the Peeblesshire hills in the end of 

 April last, were sold at 10s. a-piece, while another vixen 

 and five cubs, captured on the Pentlands above Boghall on 

 llth May, were disposed of at 3, 10s., being 1 for the 

 mother and 10s. for each of her young ones. 



Though, as has just been shown, this animal is by no means 

 rare with us, it is comparatively seldom that a person not 

 having special facilities has the opportunity of writing " Fox 



