46 FOXES AT HOME. 



The curse of Ireland from a foxhunting point 

 of view is that any landowner can put down 

 poison indiscriminately in the open, provided he 

 first puts up a notice to the following effect at the 

 nearest police barrack and chapel that he intends 



doing so : — " Take notice that the lands of , 



in the parish of , are heavily poisoned for 



the preservation of game " ; and destruction of 

 foxes might be added ! Imagine the consterna- 

 tion of the foxhunting community should the 

 above lands and parish be in the cream of their 

 country ! 



It is only on very rare occasions, when 

 watching in the evening, that one sees a dog 

 fox come up to the earth where the cubs are, 

 though no doubt he is somewhere in the 

 neighbourhood. 



When the vixen is very heavy, or has only 

 just laid up her cubs, you frequently find rabbits 

 and other food buried close to, and s metimes 

 actually in, the mouth of the earth in which she 

 is kennelled, and I am certain that most, if not 

 all, of this has been brought there for her use 

 by the dog, as she herself does not leave her 

 cubs till some time after they are born, and just 

 before the event is not, I expect, either in the 



