366 Practical Game Preserving. 



not easy to pass, and the inducement to have such an 

 entrance to the cover very small. 



These fox tracks through plantation coverts and the like 

 offer excellent opportunities for accomplishing the destruc- 

 tion of their frequenter, and although it is certainly more 

 difficult to determine which places are the best, and having 

 decided upon this, to employ a bait sufficient to lure 

 Reynard, when endeavouring to catch him in plantation or 

 wood, still if success do not crown our efforts, the failure 

 must be put down to insufficient knowledge of the fox's 

 haunts, or inability to till the traps with sufficient dexterity. 



Besides this there is a second consideration of some 

 importance, namely, the position of any traps in a covert 

 of some extent, for it must be remembered that the continual 

 passing of a person to visit gins set and baited cannot be 

 accomplished without leaving some track which would most 

 certainly tend to alarm any foxes there might be about. 

 Care must therefore be taken to choose such spots for the 

 situation of the gins as may be within short distance of the 

 outside of the covert ; but of course, if no suitable places 

 offer, except towards the centre of the brake, things must 

 shape themselves according to circumstances. 



The question of baits is also one requiring attention, for 

 besides rabbits, which are always very excellent lures, there 

 are others which are sometimes necessary to attract the 

 attention of the varmint in passing, and such as these are 

 dead fowls or ducks, a wood pigeon, and in some cases a 

 partridge or similar bird. The former may be placed about 

 indiscriminately, and in certain cases upon the run of the 

 fox, but the latter have reference to cases where, besides 



