THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING* 5O5 



|)enfive and troublefome to you if you do flop ; or 

 fatal to your Iport if you do not. You^ without 

 doubt, remember an old Oxford toaft^ 



Hounds ftout, and horfes healthy, 

 Earths well flopp'd, and foxes plenty. 



All certainly very defirable to a fox-hunter i yet 

 I apprehend the earths Jiopped tc be the moft ne- 

 cciTary, for the others, v/ithout that, would be 

 ufelefs. Belides, I am not certain that earths are 

 the fafeft places for foxes to breed in ; for fre- 

 quently, when poachers cannot dig them, they 

 will catch the young foxes in trenche?, dug at the 

 mouth of the hole, which I believe they caij. tuniimg 

 them. A fev,- large earths near to your houfe are 

 certainly defirable, as they will draw the foxes 

 thither, and, after a long day, will fometim^s 

 bring you home. 



If foxes Ihould have been bred in an earth 

 which you think unfafe, you had better fiink 

 them out : that^ or indeed any diflurbance at the 

 mouth of the hole, will make the old one carry 

 them off to another place. 



In open countries, foxes, when they are much 

 diflurbed, will lie at earth. If you have difnculty 

 in finding, flinking the earths will fometimes pro- 

 duce them again. The method which I ufe to 



X flink 



