252 FOXES v. GAME. [PART II. 
reprehensible practice of wantonly killing more 
than they can consume, for the mere fun of the 
thing, or perhaps to keep their hands in. The 
following instance of this fell within my own 
observation. On coming down to breakfast a few 
years ago, while staying with a gentleman in the 
South of England, I was horrified at seeing on the 
hall-table one of the largest-sized kitchen-trays 
covered with young pheasants laid out in order, 
fine forward birds, the ruddiness of the plumage 
of some already denoting the sex. Passing on, 
I went into the dining-room, where I was accosted 
by my host (who, though not loving foxes per se, 
had, I must say, been always most liberal in pre- 
serving them, from the time he found he could 
contribute to the public amusement by doing so) 
with “Well, you see what your friends, the foxes, 
have been doing.” “Oh!” I said, “it can’t be a 
fox, it must be a dog.” “No dog,” answered he; 
“put as to that you can easily satisfy yourself.’ 
I did so, and found sure enough, to my disgust, 
that he was right. Some young birds, brought up 
by hand, had been placed, together with the hens 
in coops, in a piece of long grass near the house, 
a certain quantity having been left uncut for that 
purpose. Amongst these a fox or foxes had been 
