Foxes and the Rearing Field, 37 



chase him. If sufficient dogs are available an 

 entire ring may encircle the field, and they will 

 ser\^e to keep each other on the alert. Probably, 

 a sharp fox terrier is as good a watch as any dog. 



If alarm-guns are placed at intervals round a 

 rearing field, the wires connected therewith ex- 

 tended so as to encompass it, and fixed at a 

 height of about fifteen inches, no fox can enter 

 without exploding one. Reynard is very unlikely 

 to remain after the report, and should he be so 

 bold, the watcher has been warned. Alarm-guns 

 are little trouble to set, and they ought to be 

 used for protecting the rearing-field to a far 

 greater extent than they are. 



Another method of excluding foxes from the 

 rearing-field, although not absolutely reliable, is 

 by free use of tainting fluids to which they have 

 an antipathy. Foxes do not like strange, offensive 

 odours, and generally make off from their neigh- 

 bourhood. The best method of protecting a field 

 after this fashion is to put sticks about three feet 

 long in the ground, at eight feet intervals. Stretch 

 two strings on these, one fifteen inches from the 

 ground and the other on top of the sticks. Keep 

 the strings dressed with the fluid, and few foxes 

 will dare to venture near. The best and cheapest 

 string is that used in harvesters and binders for 



