68 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



When commencing a new country many years ago, I 

 obtained some foxes from Germany — and a fine lot of 

 cubs they were — in colour and size resembling the old 

 greyhound fox, but much thicker in their coats and larger 

 in their heads. They came over from Frankfort in the 

 bottom of an old boat, a lid being made to it, full of air- 

 holes, and they reached me more than one hundred miles 

 from London in good health and condition. After having 

 kept them a few days in a large airy barn, I had them 

 taken into the best part of my country to some large 

 earths, where I appointed a man to look after them and 

 feed them regularly every night with rabbits, at nine 

 o'clock. These my whipper-in had to carry twice a week 

 in a sack, fifteen miles, from the 1st of June to the 1st. 

 of September. 



Young foxes, if turned down in a strange place, re- 

 quire regular feeding every night till they can catch their 

 own prey, which is not quite so soon as some people 

 imagine. It is quite true that young foxes in their 

 natural state feed upon beetles and mice, but cubs turned 

 down, if not regularly fed, will wander away anywhere, 

 and be soon starved to death or killed by sheep dogs. 

 Should they, however, escape such a fate, and contrive to 

 exist, it is ten to one but they become mangy, and ruin 

 half your good foxes. The mange in foxes is very diffe- 

 rent to the mange in dogs ; with the former it invariably 

 proves fatal and is very contagious. Of the duties of 

 huntsmen and whippers-in in my next; what they should, 

 and what they should not be. 



