THE FOX AS OUTLAW 147 



covert in the way I have already described, while the 

 other hunted the field, putting up the hares one after 

 another, one of which was sure to rush through the 

 ambush where the fox was hiding, and be caught. 

 The man would drive off the fox and appropriate the 

 hare. The same method of hunting was observed by 

 the late Charles St. John, in Morayshire, and he adds 

 that he has seen two foxes working in concert the 

 sandhills where rabbits abounded. Each of the two 

 took a side of the sandhill. 



We cannot deny that the keeper who wishes to 

 preserve hares in large numbers has some justification 

 for his enmity to foxes. Indeed, this enmity is en- 

 couraged, in Mecklenburg and elsewhere, by a fixed 

 scale of gratuities for all vermin killed, among which 

 the fox is ranked as chief. 



Yet even in those countries where the fox is 

 vermin, he is in a measure protected by foxhunting. 

 Large numbers of foxes are imported from the 

 Continent into England, chiefly from France and 

 Belgium. In Germany there are a few packs which 

 hunt bagged foxes, and they too must buy their 

 quarry. Scotch foxes are often bought and turned 

 down in England. Thus the fact that the fox has a 

 market value tends in some degree to prevent his 

 entire extermination. Of those foxes which are 



l 2 



