2l9^ THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



clean, and have plenty of frefli water ; birds and 

 rabbits are their bell food ; horfe-flcfh might 

 give them the mange, for they are fubjedt to this 

 difordcr. — I remember a remarkable initance of it. 

 Going out to coiirfe, I met the whipper-in re- 

 turning from exerciiing his horles, and alked him 

 if he had found any hares ? — No, Sir, he replied, 

 but I have caught a fox. — I faw him funning 

 himfelf under a hedge, and finding he could not 

 run, I drove him up into a corner, got off my 

 horfe, and took him up, but he is fince dead. — I 

 found him at the place he directed me to, and he 

 wag indeed a curiofity ; he had not a fingle hair 

 on his briifh, and very few on his body. 



I have kept foxes too long ; I alfo have turned 

 them out too young: the fafefl; way, I believe, 

 will be to avoid either extreme. When cubs are 

 bred in an earth near you, if you add two or 

 three to the number, it is not improbable that the 

 old fox v/ill take care of them : of this you may 

 l)e certain — that if they live they v;ill be good 

 foxes, for the others will fhew them the country. 

 Thofe which you turn into an earth fhoqld be 

 regqlarly fed ; if they fhould be once neglected, 

 \t is probable they will forfake the place, wander 

 away, iind die for want of food. When the cub# 

 leave the earth, (which they may foon do) your 

 gamekeeper fhould throw food for them in parts 

 of the cover where it may be moil eafy for them 



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