CHAPTER IX. 



FOXES ON SHOOTING DAYS. 



There was a time when the interference of a 

 fox on shooting day was thought not worth 

 considering, but now every effort is directed to 

 securing a record bag, and as the keeper's place and 

 reputation often depend upon a record bag being 

 killed, the disturbance of well-planned beats by a 

 fox is deemed no light matter. It is really vexing 

 just as a fine batch of birds has been driven into 

 a corner, ready to be sent over the guns in small 

 lots, to discover that a fox is flushing them in one 

 big bouquet. Under such circumstances the 

 majority must escape, for there is no time for the 

 guns to take more than a brace out of every lot, 

 and perhaps the game lost as described cannot be 

 shown again that day. Penned in between guns 

 and drivers, the fox rushes to and fro, and soon 

 every bird has vanished. 



This sort of thing cannot always be avoided if 

 justice is done to the foxes, but there are ways of 



F 



