50 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



certain that others had contracted the disease. Small 

 wonder, then, that after a while the infection spread to 

 the wild foxes, and that the disease rushed all over 

 the country. This is one view of the origin of the 

 mange as known in epidemic form ; the other is that 

 the disease has simply arisen through the most ob- 

 jectionable and very common habit of catching the 

 cubs when they were young and keeping them in 

 confinement until they were required for hunting 

 purposes. Foxes kept in captivity and fed on un- 

 natural food are almost bound to go wrong, except, 

 perhaps, the odd half-tamed fox, and he is always 

 more or less of a pet, and well looked after, his bed 

 being constantly changed, while as a rule he is fed 

 as far as possible on his natural food. But suppos- 

 ing two litters of cubs are placed in a barn, say at 

 the beginning of May, and kept there until the be- 

 ginning of September, and are looked after by a man 

 who is careless as to cleanliness, and ignorant as to 

 the food he provides. In such a case it is almost 

 hopeless to expect that the cubs will keep healthy, 

 and as we have mentioned, there are hunting men 

 who are strongly of opinion that this bottling-up of 

 cubs for months at a time is responsible for all the 

 mischief. 



To tell the truth it is really of little consequence 

 whether the mange came from Germany or any other 

 foreign country, or whether it is a home-bred disease. 

 It is in either case the outcome of excessive game 

 preservation, because if the supply of foxes had been 

 allowed to remain as it was, say a generation ago, 

 there would have been no need for imported foxes, 

 while if foxes had never been kept in captivity the 

 belief that they (the captive foxes) are the source of 



