58 Game a7id Foxes. 



jumping distance. With a clear space of this 

 width between cover and water a fox can secure 

 few duck, &c., although they are so fond of 

 feeding and lingering near the banks. Never 

 scatter feed, or allow any to exist, which will 

 tempt wildfowl to leave the water, for if the 

 birds are in the habit of doing this the fox will 

 secure more than a fair share. Waterfowl are 

 clumsier than most birds on land, and there they 

 are less able to elude a fox than when on their 

 favourite element. 



It is a regular habit of waterfowl to leave 

 their day resorts at evening and flight to the 

 feeding places, these being cornfields, oak 

 coverts, or other spots where favourite provender 

 is abundant, and it is while feeding at such places 

 that they are thinned by foxes. To prevent losses 

 in this way see that there is no necessity for the 

 duck to leave every evening in search of feed, and 

 they will confine their flighting to a fiy round for 

 the sake of stretching their wings ; after this the 

 birds will settle down. 



When nesting, duck suffer much from foxes, 

 for they are seldom content to nest close to the 

 water, or in rushes actually growing out of it, but 

 must w^ander hundreds of yards up a covert or into 

 adjacent fences. The nests in this case should be 



