CUBDOM. 



33 



they should only be "put to" (i.e., stopped in 

 the morning) when the hounds are coming, 

 especially if the vixen is growing heavy and 

 inclined to lie to ground, as if earths which are 

 used for breeding purposes are kept con- 

 tinuously stopped right up to the end of the 

 season, as lazy keepers are so often inclined to 

 do to save themselves trouble, not only are the 

 vixens prevented from drawing them out 

 properly, but they are frequently forced to lay 

 up their cubs elsewhere in unsafe and perhaps 

 unsuitable places, not to mention the risk of 

 their being killed by hounds when unable to run. 

 Moreover, foxes at any time, on finding the 

 doors of their earths invariably barred against 

 them, will often scrape into some large rabbit 

 burrow just far enough to be able to lie to 

 ground out of sight, and the coverts are there- 

 fore often on this account drawn blank. On 

 more than one occasion I have known hounds 

 mark a fox so close to the mouth of a rabbit 

 burrow, into which he had scraped on finding 

 the other earths stopped, that they were able to 

 tear him out themselves without any assistance 

 whatever. 



One should not mistake the scratching of a 



