72 HUNTING. 



in making any appreciable diminution in their numbers, he will 

 kill common rats for sport like a terrier, and may in times of 

 famine eat them. But it is not a food after which he hankers. 



Raw horseflesh is about the most deleterious article he 

 can take into his larder, though often put in his way to save 

 game. It is apt to produce mange, the only malady from 

 which, as far as is known, foxes frequently and seriously suffer. 

 This dire complaint may, and no doubt does arise, from other 

 causes, such as over-exertion followed by privation and ex- 

 posure to wet, but however he may contract the disease a 

 fox once really mangy is a misery to himself and a source of 

 contagion to others ; he had better be destroyed at once, 

 though the precedent of a sentence of death by shooting is at 

 all times a risky one to establish. 



There is no rule without an exception, and this may be 

 made in favour of a heavy but mangy vixen — she does not 

 necessarily infect her young, though she herself remains in- 

 curable. 



Habitual criminal as he is — a felon of the deepest dye — the 

 fox, like the devil, is not quite so black as he is painted, and 

 sins are laid to his charge, of which he is wholly guiltless ; — 

 was it Mr. Jorrocks or another of Surtees's sporting celebrities 

 who received a bill with request for immediate payment for a 

 'young bull and ten acres of vetches,' said to have been con- 

 sumed by ravenous Reynard? Such items as these are, perhaps, 

 not often debited to his account, but the accusation of lamb 

 slaughter, false as it is frequent, has been brought against him 

 in every county in England. That he will eat a dead lamb or 

 sheep which has been thrown out of the fold, just as he will 

 devour any other carrion is undeniable ; that he even attacks 

 them when alive we believe to be a convenient fiction of care- 

 less servants. Let the consigne to the shepherd be : ' Tie up 

 your own dog at night, and take care that no other curs come 

 near the place,' and it may safely be asserted that the flock 

 will be free from death by violence. 



It is true that foxes hang about ewe-pens at night for the 



