HOW TO PRESERVE FOXES 75 



On the other hand if no foxes, or bad foxes only, 

 are kept, the hunting men lose their sport altogether 

 and waste the money they have spent. But without 

 entering into a controversy which no arguments will 

 settle, because the solution depends not on reason but 

 on the character and the position of the contending 

 parties, let us try to see what real mischief foxes do 

 to shooting and in what way it may be minimised. 



The damage done by foxes on a preserved shoot- 

 ing may be classed under the following heads. 



Foxes take a certain number of full-grown birds. 

 They are destructive in the nesting season and espe- 

 cially to young broods just hatched. A fox in a 

 covert, and more particularly in a warm corner, spoils 

 the shooting of that particular covert for the day. 



Lastly, where there are foxes hounds will come, 

 and a pack of hounds spending an hour or so in a 

 woodland will drive out every living thing and let in 

 perhaps some characters that the keeper does not 

 wish to see there. We have seen that in order to 

 preserve foxes it is necessary to keep the coverts 

 quiet, and it is no less necessary if we want to have 

 pheasants or indeed any kind of game. 



Now if we take these in order it is quite clear that 

 of full-grown healthy birds the fox cannot take many. 

 The birds come down after the foxes have laid up for the 



