LETTER XXVI. 



The question has been proposed to me, how to prevent 

 foxes being caught by pheasant preservers, and the querist 

 has stated, that a friend of his had some traps made with 

 light springs, so as merely to hold, and not maim, a fox ; 

 and that those foxes which had been once caught, were 

 proof against steel traps ever afterwards. This plan I 

 have tried, and it is by no means a bad one, but in these 

 enlightened days, where one fox is destroyed by traps, 

 ten are killed by poison. Old foxes are very shy of 

 approaching a dead bait ; but if the rabbit or pheasant 

 they have killed, and half buried, be found, and a trap 

 placed on the spot, the fox will most probably be caught. 

 There are, also, many other ways of catching foxes in 

 traps, which I will not mention, for fear some gentlemen 

 in velveteen may, perchance, peruse these pages, and 

 take a leaf out of my book. Where there is a will, there 

 is generally a way to do things. > 



If a pheasant-preserver and fox-killer (they are often I 

 regret to say synonymous terms) be situated in the heart 

 of a fox-hunting country, and his coverts do not afford 

 foxes, the best plan I know of is to keep drawing them 

 till they do. Never mind a few blank days ; draw, draw, 

 draw, till foxes are found. If this does not make him 

 preserve foxes, nothing will, except all his neighbours 



