SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 425 



At that time we thought little, and cared less, about 

 foxes ; but a few years later in life they came more 

 immediately under our own care and cognizance, 

 and we studied their habits; and from this long 

 study and observation, we have formed the conclu- 

 sion, that those wily animals are far too wily to 

 prove so destructive to game and poultry as short- 

 sighted game preservers and long-sighted game- 

 keepers would force upon our credulity. So long as 

 cubs imbibe their mother's milk they are incapable 

 of sucking blood from birds and four-footed game 

 killed by their own prowess or cunning ; and, as 

 they do not arrive at months of discretion before the 

 month of August, by which time young pheasants 

 and partridges are on the wing, or ought to be, it is 

 not very likely that many of these could fall to their 

 share. 



It is not a very easy matter to put your hat over 

 a covey of young partridges or pheasants when 

 under their mother's wing and watchful care ; and 

 when pheasants take to roosting on high, which they 

 very soon do, we should like to see the fox-cub or old 

 fox which can lure them from their perches by a 

 magnetic fascination of his eye. Rest assured, ye 

 lovers of the trigger, that our game is more sinned 

 against than sinning. Your pheasants are too high 

 exalted to fall into his mouth at his bidding ; and if 

 he does occasionally pick up a wounded bird, how 

 are you the loser ? He would perish from gangrene 

 a day or two later. Your keepers tell you idle tales 

 about foxes, because they interfere with their per- 

 quisites rabbits. But this is not all : when the 



