256 THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN 



well as his temper. The fox finds the rabbits in 

 the stops when very young, and when they are not 

 to be had he Uves upon the old ones, both of which 

 are often the keeper's perquisites. This is so well 

 known, that many gentlemen who wish well to 

 hunting will not allow their keepers to seU the 

 rabbits. In the New Forest and elsewhere foxes 

 live principally on beetles, the wings of which are 

 seen in their biUets ; if near the sea they Uve a great 

 deal on fish which they find on the shore. It is 

 not here pretended to assert that foxes wiU never 

 do any mischief, but that, just as when once a 

 dog takes to killing sheep, he continues to do so ; 

 so with a fox, if one learns to take poultry he con- 

 tinues to do so till taken himself. But there are 

 hundreds of old foxes which never tasted a fowl ; 

 nor do they commit a twentieth part of the mischief 

 to game that is sometimes talked of by keepers, 

 who tell their masters that it is no use to preserve 

 pheasants whilst there are foxes. Surely some 

 signs would be left in covers, if foxes did destroy so 

 many pheasants, — they would not eat up feathers 

 and all ; and the wi'iter can, with a safe conscience, 

 declare that he never saw three places where a 

 pheasant had been destroyed by a fox during the 

 whole time he hunted hounds, although constantly 



