peter 3Bccht'oi'& la 



week you ma}^ 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 that this notable feat was performed, 

 literally, on "C^q 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 Q^g, 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! 



The following instance of prolific bearing is, so far as 

 I am aware, quite unique : — 



' If one bitch have many puppies more than she can 

 rear, you may put some of them to another bitch ; or, 

 if you destroy any of them you may keep the best 

 coloured. They sometimes will have an extraordinary 

 litter. I have known an instance of one having fifteen ; 

 and a friend of mine, whose veracity I cannot doubt, has 

 assured me that a bitch in his pack brought forth six- 

 teen, all alive.' 



And equally curious is the following anecdote which 

 hardly affords an example for imitation, I think : — 



' I know an old sportsman, a clergyman, who enters 

 his young hounds first at a cat, which he drags along 

 the ground for a mile or two, at the end of which he 

 turns out a badger, first taking care to break his teeth. 

 He takes out about four couple of old hounds along 



