SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 08 



notice of strikino^ the ground, and fallinoj to them 

 an easy prey, when unable of themselves to procure 

 any other food until the return of their mother 

 with something more substantial for supper in the 

 shape of rabbit or leveret. 



Litters of cubs are not often laid down in a 

 large head of earths, such being used occasionally by 

 badgers and other animals of the pole- cat and stoat 

 species, and, therefore, not sufficiently private for 

 the occupation of a vixen with her family of ^ve 

 small children — that being the common number, 

 although we twice have seen litters of seven and 

 nine. Foxes are notoriously very shy and fond of 

 seclusion, and on that account the vixen generally 

 selects a retired place — an old rabbit-burrow, little 

 frequented, in a small coppice or bank facing the 

 west, or an old broken dry drain not far from the 

 covert-side — wherein to deposit her cubs until they 

 are able to run about, when they are removed by 

 her to stronger places of refuge. 



Objections have been raised to main earths, as 

 leading rather to the destruction than salvation of 

 foxes, to which we cannot subscribe. True, they 

 may be known to poachers, but they are equally 

 well known to earth-stoppers, whose duty it is to 

 watch them throughout the season ; and if these 

 deep caverns in the bowels of the earth are fastened 

 up, as some writers on foxhunting have advised, 

 foxes will find other jilaces not half so secure to 

 hide their heads in, and which probably may be 

 unknown to their protectors. Foxes bred under- 

 ground will lie underground somewhere in boisterous 



