388 Practical Game Preserving. 



as tar to daub about them, they often are excellent pre- 

 ventives of foxes killing and destroying young game birds. 

 Lanterns, too, are often suspended in pheasant coverts 

 for similar purposes, some advocating revolving lights, 

 others coloured ones, and such similar means, the idea of 

 which is, however, rather far fetched. The tins, neverthe- 

 less, are very useful, and so, in fact, is anything of similar 

 nature, in quantities sufficiently large to alarm a fox on a 

 midnight marauding expedition in either pheasant or 

 partridge preserves. 



From an economic point of view, with regard to hunting, a 

 fox trapped or caught should never be killed ; but if for some 

 reason this become necessary, it is as well, we opine, that it 

 should be done in a proper manner. The best way, if the fox 

 be in a trap or fastened up, is to obtain hold of the brush, 

 then extend the animal, so that it cannot move materially, 

 and carefully and deliberately strike a heavy blow with a 

 stick, just behind the back of the nose. This renders the 

 poor beast perfectly insensible, and then it can be killed 

 outright by two or three succeeding blows, or be hanged. 



On the other hand, if one desire to capture Reynard 

 alive when once he has got entrapped, the best way is 

 to be prepared before visiting the traps with a stick about 

 6ft. in length and sufficiently stout, and having a fork at the 

 smaller end in as near as possible the shape of a U Sticks 

 with a sharper shaped fork are not so useful and less easily 

 employed in the direction required. The sides of the fork 

 ought to be about Jin. in diameter, but not more, sharpened 

 slightly at one end, about 6in. apart at the open end, and 

 from gin. to i2in. in length. 



