85 



CHAPTER IV. 



FOXES. 



Hen houses —Lambs— Natural Food— What to feed Foxes on— Worms— Vermifuge— Little 

 trouble preserving Foxes— Vixen teaching Cubs— Vixen's care of Cubs— Vixens' 

 breeding places— Country Gentlemen's duty towards Foxes— Relief to M.F.H.— Mr. 

 Ned Briscoe and Mr. Henry Bowers— Activity and Shapes of a Fox— His Foot v. a 

 Dogs— His endurance v. a Foxhound's— Buying Foxes— M.F.H. buying Foxes- 

 Mountain Dog Foxes— Crossing Breeds— Greyhound Fox—" Long, Limber, and Grey " 

 —Author's Admiration of the Fox— A V'exed Question— Docking Foxes — Au Anecdote. 



Very little is kno>vn of the nature of foxes ; and still less is it 

 known how easy it is to prevent their doing damage. 



If the door posts or windows of the hen house be occasionally rubbed 

 with tar, no fox will go near it ; or better still, burn a little assafcetida 

 therein, and a fox will not go within a mile of it, even if he is starving. 

 The smell made by this process is objectionable ; but it is a capital 

 way of preventing a fox going to ground in a dangerous earth or 

 one that cannot be easily stopped. 



If a piece of tape be tied round the neck of a lamb no fox 

 will go near it. In no case will he take a lamb unless it be a poor, 

 weakly one, and unprotected by the ewe, as it is too troublesome 

 and heavy to be carried off ; and if the mother were there she would 

 drive him away. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of the lambs which 

 are laid to the foxes' charge are really killed by cur dogs. 



The food a fox likes most is of the plainest kind —such as rabbits, 

 rats, mice, frogs, beetles, crows, blackberries, hurts, also fish; and the 

 more decayed the meat and fish the better he likes it ; rotten fish, 

 however, gives them the mange, as we learn from the number of 

 mangy foxes found at times near the seaside. 



Now, if foxes are regularly fed with rabbits, crows, rats, and mice, 

 which at all times are easily procured, they will seldom, if ever, attack 

 game or poultry, and, in fact, will do little or no damage. Care must 

 be taken, however, not to make them too comfortable at home, for if 

 they be they will not travel, and therefore can't gain that knowledge 

 of the country which is so essential to good runs. A fox is naturally 

 a lazy fellow, and seldom travels far except in search of food and in 

 the clicketing season. 



AVe seldom hear of a fox having worms, which is attributable to the 

 fact of his living so much upon animals which have furry skins ; and 

 for this reason I recommend the skin of a rabbit to be mixed occa- 

 sionally in dogs' food to act as about the very best vermifuge. 



When it is remembered that the fox provides the attraction which 

 induces gentlemen to stay in the country and spend on hunting the 

 millions of money I have already referred to, we should zealously 



