258 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



provide food for them. 1 Where game is scarce, wet 

 weather will be most favourable to them : they can 

 then live on beetles, chaffers, worms, &c, which they 

 will find great plenty of. I think the morning is the 

 best time to turn them out : if turned out in the even- 

 ing, they will be likely to ramble ; but if turned out 

 early, and fed on the earth, there is little doubt of their 

 remaining there. 2 I also recommend to you, to turn 

 them into large covers and strong earths : — out of 

 small earths they are more liable to be stolen ; and 

 from small covers are more likely to stray. Your 

 game-keepers, at this season of the year, having little 

 to do, may feed, and take care of them. When you 

 stop any of these earths, remember to have them 

 opened again, as (I have reason to think) I lost some 

 young foxes one year by not doing it. For your own 

 satisfaction, put a private mark on every fox which 

 you turn out, that you may know him again. Your 

 cubs, though they may get off from the covers where 

 they were bred, when hunted will seldom fail to return 

 to them. 



Gentlemen who buy foxes do great injury to fox- 

 hunting ; for they encourage the robbing of neighbour- 

 ing hunts : in which case, without doubt, the receiver 

 is as bad as the thief. It is the interest of every fox- 

 hunter to be cautious how he behaves in this particular. 



1 If a sheep die, let it be carried to the earth, and it will afford the 

 cubs food for some time. 



2 A more certain method, perhaps, might be to pale in part of a copse 

 which has an earth in it. It might be well stocked with rabbits ; the 

 young ones of which, the cubs would soon learn to catch. You might 

 have meuses in the pale, and let them out when capable of getting their 

 own food. Foxes turned out answer best, when left to breed. 



