68 HOUNDS. 



hunt for their food, and with her out of the way the 

 danger to the young pheasants is very much reduced. 

 His master, who probably does not mind so long as 

 the hounds find when they draw the coverts, is 

 unlikely to discover the way the cubs have been 

 reared. 



Some keepers, not content with killing the vixen, 

 dig the cubs out and keep them shut up in a shed 

 or loose-box till the autumn, and then turn them out 

 when they are useless for providing sport. This 

 practice is often the origin of mange, which has 

 done so much harm in many countries, and the 

 system cannot be too strongly condemned. We are 

 told that the foxes of the present day are a 

 degenerate race, and cannot make a decent point. 

 The reason is not far to seek when so many over- 

 year foxes meet with an untimely end, their places 

 being filled with hand-reared cubs. Even nowadays, 

 a stout, wild, woodland fox, that has seen two or 

 three seasons come and go, can still pilot hounds 

 a ten-mile point with a fair start on a good scenting 

 day, and beat them if the main earth he has 

 been making for is open. That there are shooting 

 tenants who not only allow their keepers to destroy 

 foxes, but who order them to do it, cannot be denied. 

 When such a man comes into a hunting country it 

 is exceedingly hard on the M.F.H., especially if his 

 coverts are so placed that they command the 

 adjoining ones. If nothing can be done by ''gentle 



