374 Practical Game Preserving. 



with a view to procure a supply of food, the means to be 

 taken for their capture are naturally very different from 

 those when a covert or brake is the scene of operations. 

 Sometimes more than one varmint are in the habit of 

 frequenting a field, but rarely more than two make a regular 

 practice of it. When, from having seen a varmint several 

 times in succession in a certain enclosure, one is of opinion 

 that it has been accustomed to seek food or amusement there, 

 the first step to be taken is to ascertain as near as possible 

 the exact place where it enters the field ; and in order to do 

 so with certainty, a careful examination of the hedge, bank, 

 or whatever forms the boundary, must be made, with a view 

 to placing gins in suitable and likely places. In all 

 probability, if not always, the fox will enter the field at some 

 spot close to a gate or gapway, by passing over the hedge- 

 row. Reynard never, under ordinary circumstances, passes 

 through a gateway, or over a gate, evidently considering 

 that it is safer to avoid such places of possible danger, and 

 that, by surmounting the bank on either side, he averts 

 any chance of risk, and is, at the same time, quite able to 

 make a survey of the ground in which the depredations 

 will presently commence. Had the fox any degree of 

 reasoning power, as some affirm, it would surely occur to 

 him that it makes little difference whether he passes 

 through or over a certain gateway ; or whether, on the 

 other hand, he jumps over the hedgerow at a certain 

 spot day after day. In either case he is equally open to 

 be trapped for and captured. Consequently, in spite of 

 the fact of Reynard avoiding gapways or gates being 

 evidence of an exceedingly sharp instinct, still, by the 



