78 FOX-HUNTING 



man should personally superintend. The best 

 time to move, I think, is when the cubs are 

 about three weeks old, as then they are be- 

 ginning to grow too heavy for the vixen to 

 carry far, and it must not be forgotten that her 

 first inclination is always to get home. 



A fox must have a dry place to lie in, and 

 that place must be free from all disturbance. 

 This is all he wants, but this he must have or 

 he will not patronise your covert. The dry 

 place may be a bunch of rushes in the middle 

 of a swamp, or a bank in an osier-bed that is 

 half under water, but if the kennel itself is dry 

 and sheltered he is quite content. Though the 

 wild fox is a very shy animal, hating to be seen 

 by man, I do not think he minds people in his 

 neighbourhood if they are unaccompanied by 

 dogs. Woodmen have frequently told me of 

 foxes lying within a few yards of where they 

 have been working all day, and have put them 

 up as they were going home. The keeper of 

 a celebrated covert, and who is also the wood- 

 man, told me that one day he brought his 

 dinner as usual tied up in a cotton handkerchief, 

 inside a flag basket which he laid on the ground 



