THE FOX AS A CAPTIVE 137 



to supply bag foxes for the hounds to hunt, for in 

 Beckford's day foxes were not too plentiful. The 

 M.F.H. was probably the only person who held foxes 

 imprisoned. But nowadays the keepers have taken 

 a leaf out of his book, and many of the foxes we find 

 have never known liberty. They have been kept in 

 some pit or den by the gamekeeper, who saves his 

 credit and his game by turning out one or two when 

 the hounds are coming. These generally fall easy 

 victims to the pack, for without condition and with- 

 out knowledge of the country such foxes can show no 

 sport. If they do escape — and bad foxes are difficult 

 to kill on a very bad scenting day, when they turn and 

 twist about till the covert is foiled— -they are often 

 mangy, or have the seeds of the disease in them. 

 But they have served their purpose, for they have 

 earned for the keeper the money paid for each fox 

 found in his covert. It is these captives that are 

 one source of mange — a scourge which may well 

 be dreaded, for it kills the foxes and devastates the 

 country. I am very much inclined to think that, 

 once started, the disease will run its course in the 

 district. 



Since, then, the captive fox is one of the sources 

 of mange, this seems the right place to speak of the 

 disease. It is not necessary to go into the nature of 



