POLICY AND PROTECTION 209 



seen, as I have, enough foxes, even during z. first-rate 

 week's covert shooting, to satisfy any master of hounds. 

 If your keeper persists in killing foxes, he will serve 

 you a very bad turn with your neighbours, and sooner 

 or later you will have to part with him ; he will pro- 

 bably disclose other qualities which are against what 

 should be his first object — his employer's interest. It 

 is, of course, necessary in a hunting country to collect 

 the eggs from the wild nests more exhaustively ; but 

 there are various old-fashioned dodges for protecting 

 the sitting hen from foxes, while the peculiarity of the 

 absence of natural scent of the bird during incubation 

 will save the Uves of a good many.' A very little gas 

 tar, a little petroleum, or a strand of fine wire stretched 

 between any two points near a nest, will in most cases 

 deter the fox from going near it. Later on, for the 

 wild broods, you must trust to Providence, while for 

 your young chicks at the coops, a dog chained hard 

 by at night, and constant watchfulness on the part of 

 the keeper, are the only real protections. 



But if ypu preserve pheasants highly in a hunting 

 country, you must not only make up your own mind, 



■ This is doubted by some modern writers, yet it is, to my 

 certain knowledge, believed by many keepers of experience ; it 

 is also quoted and apparently endorsed by Mr. Tegetmeier, than 

 whom no greater authority exists on the absolute natural history 

 of the pheasant. 



P 



