86 Game and Foxes. 



ordinary keeper, may be conducted without the 

 least danger to foxes if very simple precautions 

 are strictly observed, for it is only the careless 

 and neglectful trapper who endangers the life and 

 limb of a fox. So keen is the nose of a fox that 

 it is able to detect evidence of a human being 

 having handled a trap long after this has passed 

 beyond the power of stoat and weasel ; for that 

 reason, the trapper who resets his traps each day 

 will never harm a fox. He who sets a trap, and, 

 because it captures nothing, leaves it untouched j 

 for several days, is carrying out his work in a 

 very careless fashion, and is the man guilty of i 

 injuring foxes. After twenty-four hours all traces ' 

 of human handling have vanished, and a trap left 

 untouched for that length of time is a direct 

 danger to a passing fox. The careful trapper will 

 go over all his traps, and reset each one, whether 

 it has been disturbed or not, preferably not earlier 

 than 2 p.m. ; no fox will venture near them the 

 succeeding night, for the scent of man's presence 

 will be far too palpable about the spot. The 

 most risky trap of all is one set so that a fox 

 jumps over some obstacle right on to it, so be 

 cautious of placing steel-traps on one side of a 

 fence, wall, or ditch, which foxes habitually leap 

 over. 



