238 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



Of the depredations committed by the fox under 

 sore stress we shall say little ; yet they have been 

 beyond all credit, save by the sufferers from his 

 audacious plundering. It says much for the sport- 

 ing sympathies innate in the true Briton that, in 

 spite of the heavy losses foxes and their families 

 have entailed on the farmer, it has only been in 

 certain instances, where it has become a direct 

 necessity, that one or two have been killed : they 

 have been allowed to plunder as a rule. Extra- 

 ordinary devices have been employed, however, in 

 secluded woodland districts, to keep foxes away 

 from poultry-farms, by day and by night. Not 

 one case of fox-poisoning have I heard of: when 

 it was necessary to kill one, it was done openly, 

 and by those who had the right to do it. 



I know of some pheasant-aviaries that are not far 

 away from fox-earths, where there are rare pheas- 

 ants from the mountains of India and China, the 

 gorgeous monals and the curious horned pheasants. 

 These are far too costly to serve as food for the 

 fox; but if he does not get into the aviary he 

 rushes round and round, in his cat-like fashion, 

 and frightens the birds horribly. The golden 



