THE TREATMENT OF CUBS 257 



Your country being extensive, probably it may not 

 be all equally good : it may be worth your while, 

 therefore, to remove some of the cubs from one part of 

 it into the other : it is what I frequently do myself, and 

 find it answer. 1 A fox-court is of great use : it should 

 be airy, or I cannot advise you to keep them long in it. 

 I turned out one year ten brace of cubs ; most of 

 which, by being kept till they were tainted before they 

 were turned out, were found dead in the covers, with 

 scarcely any hair upon them ; whilst a brace which had 

 effected their escape, by making a hole in the sack in 

 which they were brought, lived, and showed excellent 

 sport. Should the cubs be large, you may turn them 

 out immediately : — a large earth will be best for that 

 purpose ; where they ought to be regularly fed with 

 rabbit's, bird's, or sheep's henges, whichever you can 

 most conveniently get. I believe when a fox is once 

 tainted he never recovers. The weather being remark- 

 ably hot, those which I kept in my fox-court (and it at 

 that time was a very close one) all died, one after the 

 other, of the same disorder. 



Where rabbits are plentiful, Nature will soon teach 

 your cubs how to catch the young ones ; and, till that 

 period of abundance arrives, it may be necessary to 



1 Though turned-out foxes may sometimes answer the purpose of 

 entering young hounds, yet they seldom show any diversion : few of those 

 I have turned into my woods, have I ever seen again ; besides, the 

 turning out of foxes, and alarming the neighbourhood, may hasten their 

 destruction. Foxes will be plentiful enough where traps are not set to 

 destroy them : should they do any injury to the farmer, make satisfaction 

 for it : encourage the neighbouring game-keepers to preserve them, by 

 paying them handsomely for every litter of cubs that they take care of 

 for you. If you act in this manner, you may not have occasion to turn 

 any out. 



S 



