MANGE IN lOXES. 9I 



should be at once buried, or better still burnt, 

 as foxes, healthy or otherwise, have a nasty 

 habit of rolling on a dead comrade, like a setter 

 or spaniel on a decomposing rabbit or bird, 

 and this, of course, helps to spread the disease. 

 It is far easier to start mange in a district than 

 to get rid of it, and if foxes were left alone to 

 take care of themselves the disease would be 

 unknown. Its origin can be traced in most 

 cases to improper food and unhealthy surround- 

 ings. In many places where foxes are supposed 

 to be strictly preserved and where cubs must 

 be forthcoming in the autumn, if a large head of 

 game is reared, the keepers have a trick of 

 killing off the vixens (and dogs, too, for that 

 matter !) after the season is over, and rearing up 

 the cubs by hand, feeding them on al4 sorts of 

 unhealthy and unnatural food. The earth in 

 which they are located, owing to there being no 

 vixen to clean it out, or, when foul, to shift them 

 to another, soon becomes full of putrid and 

 decomposing matter, the uneaten remains of the 

 scraps on which they have been fed, and 

 amongst which they are compelled to exist until 

 almost old enough to look after themselves. It 

 is then perhaps too late, and the disease has 



