

CHAPTER XLIX. FOX PRESERVA- 

 TION AND THE FORMATION OF 

 FOX COVERTS. 



IN a former chapter we detailed the means necessary for 

 the decrease of foxes in game preserves, and promised 

 then to devote an equal amount of attention to the best 

 means of maintaining and increasing the stock of foxes in 

 hunting countries ; for although the fox is, from one point 

 of view, decidedly vermin, it is nevertheless from another 

 decidedly game. We now propose to fulfil our promise. 



There are several causes which contribute to th,e numerical 

 decrease of foxes in different parts of the country. It is 

 generally brought about by waste of foxes to gratify the 

 vanity of hunting men and women, who must carry home 

 and hang up in their halls a head or a brush or a pad as 

 a proof of their prowess, and is also due to the enemies of 

 hunting more than to game preservers proper. Since it 

 has become the fashion to decry fox-hunting as a luxury of 

 the grinding landlords, discontented men have taken to 

 the practice of destroying all objects of sport, from the 

 fox to the coney, and as they think they have more reason 



