500 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Of Breeding and Rearing Cubs. 



hide them. Foxes ought to be kept very clean, and have 

 plenty of fresh water : birds and rabbits are their best 

 food : horse flesh might give them the mange ; for they 

 are subject to this disorder. 



'^ I have kept foxes too long : I also have turned them 

 out too young. The safest way, I believe, will be to 

 avoid either extreme. When cubs are bred in an earth 

 near you, if you add two 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 ; for the others will show them the country. 

 Those which you turn into an earth should be regularly 

 fed. If they are once neglected, it is probable they will 

 forsake the place, wander away, and die for want of food. 

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

 your gamekeeper 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 out ; unless care 

 is taken of them afterwards. 



" Your country being extensive, probably it may not 

 be all equally good : it may be worth your while, there- 

 fore, 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, therefore, is of great use : it 

 should be airy, or I would not advise you to keep them 

 long in it. I turned out one year ten brace of cubs, 

 most of which, by being kept till they were tainted before 

 they were turned out, were found dead in the covers, 

 with scarce any hair upon them : whilst a brace, which 



