96 THE FOX 



a gorse covert it is much better not. There must 

 necessarily be a track made by the person who stops 

 the earth, and this may lead others to know of it. 

 It is also likely that a fox might note the traces of 

 human interference and abandon the gorse for the day. 



There is not the smallest necessity to have an 

 earth in any covert : the foxes will use the covert 

 just the same. Therefore the question of the 

 artificial earth has little or nothing to do with the 

 covert holding foxes, but it must be determined by 

 other considerations as to whether it should or should 

 not be made. 



For general principles I cannot do better than refer 

 my reader to the Badminton volume on ' Hunting.' 

 It is there laid down that there should be (i) a south 

 aspect ; (2) a chalk soil ; (3) a dry situation ; (4) that 

 the chamber should be above the entrance; (5) that 

 the entrance should be too narrow to admit a terrier. 



To this I should be inclined to add that there 

 ought to be facilities for getting at the chamber, and 

 that this should neither be too spacious nor too lofty. 

 Foxes are very apt to foul their earths, and as the fox 

 never makes the earth larger than it requires, so the 

 nearer we come to nature the better it will be for the 

 health of our foxes. 



There should be a second exit, the mouth of 



