General Remarks. 107 



entire vulpine race. A very casual inspection was 

 sufficient to show that no one but himself was 

 responsible for the damage, as it had all been 

 done by the pigs he had allowed to roam over 

 certain fields that year. Pigs have noses far 

 keener than a setter's, and soon learn to hunt for 

 eggs with the greatest success, as many a farmer's 

 wife has found to her own cost when resorting to 

 her hen-roost in quest of eggs. No doubt many a 

 game nest they have destroyed has been scored 

 against'foxes. 



One good work the fox does is the snapping-up 

 of diseased game as soon as it becomes at all 

 feeble, and thereby preventing the spread of the 

 complaint. In the Eastern Counties, and else- 

 where, coveys of partridges are frequently seen 

 afflicted with gapes, and, when flushed, individual 

 birds drop exhausted at intervals along the whole 

 line of flight. These birds linger on from day to 

 day, spreading the disease, but if foxes existed 

 there all but the most vigorous would be promptly 

 destroyed, and their capacity for harm at once 

 brought to an end, with ultimate benefit to the 

 rest of the stock. In a hunting district a covey 

 may be noted to grow smaller day by day, but it 

 is possible that the birds have become infected 

 w4th disease, and have fallen a prey to Reynard 



