88 Game and Foxes. 



On an estate, which shall be nameless, where 

 foxes are strictly preserved, and around which it 

 is to be feared every effort is made to trap them, 

 full advantage is taken of the foregoing fact. 

 Traps with weak springs are especially made, and 

 designedly set to catch foxes at intervals of a 

 month or so ; the result is to give the foot a smart 

 rap, and it is then withdrawn with little difficulty 

 and no material injury. The fox which has met 

 with this experience is most cautious for the future, 

 and, since the system has been adopted upon the 

 estate to which allusion has been made, those over 

 the boundaries seeking to trap foxes have met 

 with but limited success. 



Snares are far more dangerous to foxes than 

 steel-traps, and far more generally used, especially 

 since the passing of the Ground Game Act. 

 Where hares and rabbits exist on a farm snares are 

 to be found in every fence at certain seasons of the 

 year, and a fox is fortunate to avoid them. 

 Indeed, Reynard is attracted to the spot where 

 they are set by the cries of rabbits already caught, 

 and if any snares are still standing they get on his 

 legs. A snare made to hold a hare or rabbit is not 

 sufficiently strong to detain a fox, but the wire of 

 which it is composed draws tight and often becomes 

 deeply buried in the flesh before a fox can break 



