418 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



a live trap, called a witch, at the mouth of the 

 earth, they never visited the trap except once in 

 twenty-four hours, or an old fox would lie sulky 

 there for a week before venturing out : and to prove 

 how easily they are scared away from committing 

 depredations upon poultry, we can state this as a 

 fact of some service to farmers and breeders of 

 pheasants : 



For three years in succession we have raised from 

 sixty to a hundred head of turkeys and chickens on 

 a piece of moorland, within two hundred yards of 

 the wood hedge of a very large fox-covert, in which 

 no less than five litters of cubs were reported by the 

 woodman to be laid down the season before last. 

 The only protection to this host of the feathered 

 tribe consisted of a penning made of wattled hurdles, 

 four feet high, with a piece of twine netting raised 

 above the hurdles on stakes six feet high, and at 

 intervals strips of red cloth attached to them, float- 

 ing in the breeze. The coops containing the hen 

 birds were placed within this enclosure, where the 

 chickens remained day and night for three months 

 during the summer, although allowed to roam about 

 the moor at certain hours of the day. A light net 

 was also thrown over the coops at nightfall, when we 

 visited the penning for the last time, and walked 

 round it to see all was secure. Thus situated, with no 

 other protection, we have raised our poultry for three 

 years ; and not a single chicken has ever been carried 

 away by a fox, although we have often seen their 

 footmarks within a few yards of the forbidden fruit. 



More than this, there are kites, hawks, ravens, 



