270 THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN 



of cubs, every one of them would have been affected 

 with the mange, and they would have infected 

 others. To have mangy foxes in a country must 

 be considered a great nuisance, and one way of 

 reducing the chances of getting them is by destroy- 

 ing the earths, or, at all events, stopping them up 

 during the hunting season, according to the plan 

 hereafter described {vide Earth-stopping). 



The usual or rather the greatest age of foxes in 

 general does not appear to be very well known. 

 But that they Uve to the age of ten or twelve years 

 the wi'iter has proved, by having hunted and killed 

 a fox with a short brush, which was called the 

 stump-tailed fox, and had been known and hunted 

 eight or nine years before he went into the country, 

 and which when killed had scarcely a tooth left, 

 indeed nothing but the stumps. 



Foxes are thought to run stoutest about the 

 middle of the winter, — from the beginning of 

 December to the end of January. And from the 

 circumstance that the fur of all animals is most 

 valuable in the midst of winter, it is fair to suppose 

 that they are stronger and in better condition at 

 that time, consequently more fit for work. But 

 after that time, in the month of February, the dog 

 foxes are much easier killed than in any other 



