526 Practical Game Preserving. 



near each other in a well-fenced covert where undergrowth 

 is thick and rabbits and rabbit-burrows are plentiful. If a 

 happy moment have been chosen, the vixens will immediately 

 commence to cast about for cubbing-earths, and, if none 

 be available, will soon turn some sufficiently capacious 

 rabbit-burrows to account and lay up their cubs in them, 

 after which they must be watched and well supplied with 

 food, for, be it remembered, the chief provider the dog 

 fox is absent. By the following season the existence of 

 the vixens and their offspring will be well known, and, 

 by a judicious care of the varmints, a good head of foxes 

 will soon be established. 



The next point, and it is an extremely important one, is the 

 protection of the foxes from their human enemies other than 

 hunting-men ; for, as we said before, it has become largely 

 the practice to destroy foxes merely because they are so, 

 and not by reason of any specific damage they may happen 

 to commit. Our own opinion is that the fox is undoubtedly 

 of the type of vermin as far as the game preserver is con- 

 cerned, but that nevertheless hunting and game preserving 

 can be worked together if either be conducted upon rational 

 principles. 



The chief remedy for vulpicide lies in a cordial under- 

 standing by both parties not to interfere with each other's 

 sport more than is absolutely necessary. But it is the 

 dependents who are mostly to blame, and chiefly the 

 gamekeepers. Cases of vulpicide should be dealt with 

 severely, that is, of course, when the keeper contravenes 

 his master's orders. The " rabbit perquisite " is an unmixed 

 evil, and is the prime motive of a good deal of fox-killing. 



