SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 231 



of the strongest old fox recovering from this 

 malady. It has been supposed that the cause of 

 this disease is attributable to a sudden chill after a 

 severe chase. There is some reason in this sup- 

 position ; but, however engendered, it is evidently 

 contagious, since we have known foxes generally 

 affected by it in certain districts ; and cubs, if 

 confined too long in close places, without plenty of 

 air, will assuredly become mangy. Before turning 

 them down in main earths, careful examination 

 should be made that no badgers or old foxes fre- 

 quent these strongholds, or they will kill these 

 strange cubs immediately. All the pipes or out- 

 lets, save one, must then be stopped up with 

 stones or brushwood, and the main entrance left 

 open until the cubs are placed therein, which must 

 then be closed also with rough stones, so arranged 

 that the air is not excluded, with sufficient space 

 for a pan of water and food being placed inside. 

 By keeping the cubs thus shut in for two days and 

 nights, and fed regularly at the same hour eight 

 o'clock in the evening they will become accus- 

 tomed to their new home, and there remain ; but if 

 default is made by the man to whose care they 

 are entrusted in supplying them without fail every 

 night with rabbits, they will wander away in 

 quest of food, and most likely be starved to 

 death. 



Sand is the most healthy of all soils for foxes, 

 and the underground labyrinths in an old head 

 of earths of this description are really astonishing. 



