200 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



she cannot be hunting for a hen-pheasant or 

 her nest. It is true again that we must have 

 foxes, and I know all this without being told as 

 well as you know that it is necessary to keep 

 the vermin down. 



Now just allow me to say that, by keeping 

 the vermin '* close down," you will have more 

 leverets for the vixen to take to her cubs, and 

 more hares next year for your master's guns 

 and the guns of your master's friends to shoot. 

 Also, the more hares you have the more you 

 will save the hen birds and their nests from the 

 foxes. I had three litters of cubs in Thrupp 

 cover one spring, of nine, seven, and five 

 respectively, besides the old ones. 



Mr. Fowle was not only a fox-hunter, but a 

 fox rearer. "Wilkins," he used to say to 

 me, " I will have foxes, if I don't get a single 

 pheasant." "Very well, sir," said I, "So you 

 shall." And during the three years I lived 

 with him, I never shot or trapped a fox, so that 

 when he was giving me a character, he wrote, 

 "He is particularly clever at breeding game 

 and destroying vermin, but is not a fox-killer." 



