20 Game and Foxes. 



sprinkled with some noxious fluid it will be left 

 severely alone by the cattle. 



It Is to be regretted that the old-fashioned 

 wide fences, w^hlch often encroached to the extent 

 of yards Into a field at places, and yielded the 

 best and safest of nesting accommodation, are 

 now fast giving w'ay to narrow, closely- clipped 

 hedges. In fact. In some districts live fences are 

 rapidly disappearing In favour of those constructed 

 of wire, for farming has been in such straits that 

 it has become necessary to utilise every foot of 

 ground, and there is no room for waste. On 

 many farms fences are not considered necessary 

 between cultivated fields, and such have been 

 grubbed up and dispensed with altogether ; this 

 has had the result of concentrating nests in the 

 few fences that are available, and of driving birds 

 to the roadside, where hedges must still be main- 

 tained. It cannot be said that wire fences are as 

 good for game as live hedges, if only because of 

 the number of birds killed by dashing against 

 them, but barbed-wire fences are better for nesting 

 than those composed of plain wire. Cattle learn 

 to respect the sharp barbs, and beneath and 

 around the bottom strand of wire springs up a 

 wealth of herbage which they dare not attempt 

 to graze off. Amongst this a partridge may nest 



