94 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



weather, or after a heavy fall of snow, through which 

 they are easily traced by poachers to their new 

 burrows or drains, and as easily bolted into a net 

 by the poacher's dog. Main earths are their only 

 safe lodging-houses in sandy or gravelly districts, 

 from which they can with the greatest difficulty be 

 dislodged, on account of the depth and ramifications 

 of these underground labyrinthian passages. The 

 best terrier in the world could not force an old fox 

 to vacate his holding in such a place, neither could 

 he drag him out whilst living ; and poachers' dogs 

 are not over hard in the mouth, wliich would defeat 

 their masters' objects. We have seen a large high 

 net, of extent sufficient to enclose all the mouths 

 and outlets of the earth or fox-burrow, set upon 

 sticks, with bells attached to it inside, while the 

 poacher and his dog were lying on a sack to await 

 patiently the voluntary issuing of the animal ; but 

 this was a tedious process. To keep watch through 

 two or three dark wintry nights, until the fox was 

 starved out of his den, was not less likely to starve 

 with cold the besiegers of his fortress. Yet the 

 auri sacra fames induces men to submit to almost 

 any hardships or inclemency of weather, and two 

 guineas for a stout healthy fox — the usual price 

 formerly-^amounted to as much money as a 

 labourer's wages for a month. "Light come, 

 light go," has been and still is the distinguishing 

 motto of fox-stealers, game poachers, and all of 

 that class who prefer a pilfering life to an honest 

 one. 



Fox-netting in the present age is little practised, 



