•^l3 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, 



as on the country that you hunt : however, in my opi- 

 nloHy no good country should be hunted after February j 

 nor should there be any hunting at all after March» 

 Spring-hunting is sad destruction of foxes : in one week 

 you may destroy as many as would have shewn you sport 

 for a whole season. We killed a bitch-fox one morning, 

 with seven young ones, which were all alive. I can assure 

 you, we missed them very much the next year, and had 

 many blank days which we needed not to have had, but 

 through our own fault. I should tell you, this nota- 

 ble feat was performed, literally, on the first of April, 

 If you will hunt late in the season, you should at least 

 leave your terriers behind you. I hate to kill any animal- 

 out of season. A hen-pheasant with egg, I have heard, 

 is famous eating , yet, I can assure you I never mean tc 

 taste it y — and the hunting a bitch -fox big with young,, 

 appears to m.e cruel and unnatural. A gentleman of my 

 acquaintance, who killed most of his foxes at this season- 

 was humorously called, midwife to the foXes. 



Are not the foxes' heads, which are so pompously ex- 

 posed to view, often prejudicial to sport in fox-hunting ? — 

 How many foxes are wantonly destroyed, without the least 



