•MS 



SOME FOX HUNTERS WORRIED. 



The publication of these bounty payments, together 

 with the killing, for premiums, of some thirty Red 

 Foxes in one week, in the West Chester Daily. Local 

 News — a newspaper which goes to nearly every home 

 in the County of Chester, with its population of 100,- 

 000 people — created quite a furore among Fox hun 

 ters who loved to pursue, but not destroy sly Reynard. 

 The objectionable scalp act was freely discussed, and 

 by some roundly "cussed." Tlie fox hunters, with, 

 possibly, a few exceptions, who condemned the bounty 

 of a dollar a head on Foxes, made little complaint 

 about the killing of Hawks, Owls and other birds 

 which had been captured and paid for, at seventy- 

 cents each (twenty cents to justice of the peace) to 

 the number of about 800. The claim was made 



"that it was a waste of public funds: the Fox was a badly 

 abused animal and he furnished lots of sport: Hawks and Owls 

 were of little or no acount, and when they were killed off, the 

 large bounty payments would cease and the money spent for 

 them would, in future years be found, so far as poultry and 

 game interests were concerned, to be a wise outlay." 



SOME THINGS THEY DID. 



The members of the West Chester Microscopical So- 

 ciety, a body of well-informed scientific men, did not 

 concur in the expressions quoted above, as can be 

 seen by tuiijing to succeeding pages. These birds, 

 which devoured legions of destructive grasshoppers, 

 and beetles or thinned out the Meadow Mice, were not, 

 it is true, hunted by men in bright red coats, buttoned 

 high in front, nor were they followed by pedigi'eed 

 packs of baying hounds (that so often frightened the 

 sheep, and sometimes stampeded the cows) and swift, 

 high-priced, well-kept steeds, that tore the sod, or 



