33© THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



near you, if you add *wo or three to the number, it is 

 not improbable that the old fox will take care of them. 

 Of this you may be certain, that if they live they will 

 be good foxes j for the others will shew them the country. 

 Those which you turn into an earth, should be regularly fed : 

 if they should be once negleded, it is probable they will for- 

 sake the place, wander away, and die through want of food. 

 When the cubs leave the earth (which they may soon do), 

 3'our game-keeper should throw food for them, in parts of 

 the cover where it may be most easy for them to find it ; 

 and, when he knows their haunt, he should continue to 

 feed them there. Nothing destroys so much the breed of 

 foxes as buying them to turn ojat, unless care be taken of 

 them afterwards. 



Your country being extensive, probably it may not be 

 all equally good : it may be worth your while, therefore, 

 to remove some of the cubs from one part of it into the 

 other: it is what I frequently do myself, and find it 

 answer*. A fox-court is of great use : it should be 



* Though turned-out foxes may sometimes answer the purpose of en- 

 tering young hounds, yet they seldom shew any diversion: few of those 



