TIME TO LEAVE OFF FOX-HUNTING 247 



their strength not being sufficient to resist the two 

 enemies they had to encounter (powerful when com- 

 bined) the severity of the cold, and the rapidity of 

 the stream. 



You ask, At what time you should leave off hunt- 

 ing? It is a question which I know not how to 

 answer ; as it depends as much on the quantity of 

 game that you have, as on the country that you hunt : 

 however, in my opinion, no good country should be 

 hunted after February ; nor should there be any hunt- 

 ing at all after March. Spring-hunting is sad destruc- 

 tion of foxes : in one week you may destroy as many 

 as would have shown you sport for a whole season. 

 We killed a bitch-fox one morning, with seven young 

 ones, which were all alive. I can assure you we 

 missed them very much the next year, and had many 

 blank days which we needed not to have had, but 

 through our own fault. I should tell you, this notable 

 feat was performed, literally, on the first of April. 

 If you will hunt late in the season, you should at least 

 leave your terriers behind you. I hate to kill any 

 animal out of season. A hen-pheasant with egg, I 

 have heard, is famous eating ; yet, I can assure you 

 I never mean to taste it ; and the hunting a bitch-fox 

 big with young, appears to me cruel and unnatural. 

 A gentleman of my acquaintance, who killed most 

 of his foxes at this season, was humorously called, 

 midwife to the foxes. 



Are not the foxes' heads, which are so pompously 

 exposed to view, often prejudicial to sport in fox- 

 hunting ? How many foxes are wantonly destroyed, 



