528 Practical Game Preserving. 



takably dislike wet places, and if the wood or brake it 

 is sought to encourage them in be at all damp or redolent 

 of stagnant water, they will have nothing to do with it 

 as a haunt. Rocky and stony places seem to please only 

 individuals ; indeed, the animal in question is very peculiar 

 upon this point. We happen to lease some coverts fairly 

 well sprinkled with foxes, and these coverts are for the 

 most part level and free of rocks ; but there is one par- 

 ticularly rough, wild, and broken, quite impassable without 

 extreme trouble and risk, and yet this is the only part the 

 foxes do not frequent. Were we ignorant of this peculiarity, 

 we should expect the few acres of that broken ground to 

 be more foxy than all the rest of the estate together. 



It will thus be seen that foxes are somewhat erratic in 

 their choice of haunts ; consequently all coverts cannot 

 necessarily be fox-coverts, or, in other words, will scarcely 

 suit for fox preserving. Whenever it is necessary to produce 

 any large increase of the animals, the best plan undoubtedly 

 is to form a regular and well-defined fox preserve, and 

 although this will necessitate some expenditure and trouble, 

 in the end we fancy it would be found the most speedy 

 and the cheapest manner of going to work. 



The first thing to decide upon is the land ; this, if possible, 

 should be a few acres of sandy covert, the growth upon 

 which is irregular and recent. In a suitable part of this 

 either an artificial earth must be constructed, or an induce- 

 ment offered the varmints to make one themselves. A large 

 collection of old tree-roots of moderate, not unwieldy size, 

 brambles and bush roots, faggots of rough plantation 

 cuttings, and similar material should be made. The site 



