FOXES AND POULTRY IT 



unless the scent is unusually good, and the 

 hounds get quickly on the line of a fox when 

 he breaks away, he has every chance of saving 

 his brush. 



It is amusing to see the trouble which the 

 village people take to prevent the foxes making 

 free with their hen-roosts. Wherever poultry is 

 kept, the gardens and premises are adorned with 

 pieces of white rag tied to sticks, posts, railings, 

 anywhere and everywhere, all of which precautions 

 are taken to avoid the trouble of shutting up the 

 fowls at night. The result may be readily 

 imagined, for after a time the foxes care no 

 more for the rags than they do for the sticks to 

 which they are tied ; and so it happens that many 

 a fat hen is carried off, her remains being pro- 

 bably discovered in one of the many withy-beds 

 or gorse-coverts on the outskirts of the village 

 w r hen the hounds go there to draw. The owners 

 bewail their misfortune, and send in their claims 

 to the masters of the neighbouring packs, who are 

 ever generous and just in such matters. Never- 

 theless, it always appears to me to be somewhat 

 hard on the masters of hounds to be called upon 

 to settle claims for such poultry as can be safely 

 housed. With turkeys and guinea-fowls, etc., the 

 case is different ; but whenever the opportunity 

 offers, I never fail to endeavour to impress on 

 the claimants for reimbursement for poultry they 

 assert to have been taken by foxes, that, if they 

 are too lazy to shut up their cocks and hens, they 



