HOW TO PRESERVE FOXES 71 



whose pleasure and pride it was to show sport, was 

 better than the present, when in most places keepers 

 and others stop, or do not stop, the earths. But, 

 again, shooting interests make landowners and 

 keepers unwilling to allow anyone the run of the 

 coverts. The picturesque old earth-stopper, with his 

 rough pony, his lantern, and his terriers, is a relic of 

 past days found only in some old-established hunts. 



There is another point in the preservation of 

 foxes, and that is, the killing powers of the pack. 

 As a general rule, it is sound policy to kill as many 

 foxes as we can. There are many reasons for this. 

 Any given district will only carry a certain stock of 

 foxes. If they are too numerous, they are driven 

 into bad ways and become haunters of back-gardens 

 and pigstyes, robbers of hen-roosts. Farmers, 

 keepers, and cottagers maintain an interested watch 

 upon the local pack, and note whether or not they 

 kill foxes. It will be found that there is no 

 such discouragement to fox-preserving as the know- 

 ledge that the pack does not kill a fair proportion 

 of the foxes it finds. A friend of mine who is a 

 very keen sportsman and a first-rate amateur hunts- 

 man took a country. He proceeded, in his first 

 season, to kill the foxes at what the members of the 

 hunt thought a most alarming rate. There would 



