NOTITIA VEN'ATICA. 129 



generally give sufficient warning i'ur a fox to get upon his legs and pre- 

 pare himself for a start, without the danger of heing choppcil. Where 

 there is a large riding in a cover, the Held had by all means he better col- 

 lected to that point, as there will be less chance of the fox being headed 

 back than when each person is left to his own discretion ; the jealousy 

 of getting a good start has been the chief cause of spoiling many a good 

 run. I have occasionally seen a small cover drawn by about four or 

 live couples of hounds, the body of the pack being kept in reserve at 

 some distance, and nuist confess that, although the motive was excel- 

 lent, viz., that the fox should have every advantage in making his point 

 away without being overpowered by numbers and chopped, it took away 

 in no little degree from the true spirit of the thing. Colonel Cook men- 

 tions, in his " Observations on Hunting," the circumstance of Mr. Mey- 

 nell's hounds waiting in the same Held, while a few couples selected 

 from the pack were running hard in an adjoining gorse ; nor did they 

 attcmjjt to break from the Avhipper-in until cheered to the cry by Jack 

 Raven. In some hunting countries where earths are scarce, and it is 

 found necessary to establish an artificial one for the sake of rearing 

 young cubs, which may have been put down, the best method of making 

 one is by digging a deei) trench on the sunny side of some rising ground, 

 inside the cover which is intended to be stocked, if possible. When you 

 have dug the first trench, which ought to be about four feet deep, and 

 about of the same width, being in a semi-circular form, with two entrances, 

 and from the centre turning oft' into an oven or den, lay a drain of very 

 small soughing tiles, placed upon flat ones, to prevent rabbits from work- 

 ing under them ; by this means the artificial earth will be kept per- 

 fectly dry after severe soaking rains. Having foi'med the large trench 

 in which the earth is to be made, lay the bottom with large flat stones, 

 which may be generally procured from the rubbish of stone quarries at 

 a low price, taking care to build in the aforementioned oven or den, a 

 kind of raised kennel, in which the foxes may he secure and dry, having 

 two or three small spouts in the side, into which a fox may stick him- 

 self, with his head only exposed, in ease of a terrier being sent in by a 

 poacher or fox-catcher ; by taking this precaution it will be next to an 

 impossibility for a dog which is small enough to creep into the earth to 

 bolt or draw a fox out. The earth may then be built of stones or bricks 

 upon the floor, terminating at each entrance with a hole of such a size 

 as not to admit a dog larger than a fox. The mouth should be made 

 Avitli a heavy stone or large piece of timber, to prevent its wearing aAvay. 

 A large mound of soil should be heaped over the earth, and, for a better 

 protection, a quantity of dead cover placed upon that. Great care should 

 be taken to select a dry place for an earth, or the foxes will become 

 mangy, and, by dying in the earth spoil it for ever. Badgers are a sad 

 nuisance when they take to an artificial earth, and should be imme- 

 diately caught, or they will in a short time pull down and destroy the 

 whole of the interior. The best plan for taking them is by placing 

 sacks or large purse nets made on purpose in the entrance to the earth 

 on a moonhght night, and hunting them in with terriers from the lower 

 grounds, where they usually go to feed about midnight. It is a fact 



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