39i Foxes and Game. 



go on quite easily, successfully, and extensively in a 

 country where fox-hunting is regularly pursued under 

 ordinary and reasonable conditions. The game is, of 

 course, sure to suffer ; to what extent depends, I consider, 

 upon the keeper in charge of it, or the views held and 

 instructions given to him by the owner of the preserve. 

 There is, however, a considerable margin between sitting 

 down and permitting the foxes to run riot over the 

 preserves and going in for the destruction of them, so that 

 if the happy medium be aimed at and struck, a state of 

 things can easily exist which will have little fault found 

 with it by the preserver and be satisfactory to the fox- 

 hunting interest. 



In the present volume we have to recognise, however, 

 only the interests of the preserver, who is compelled to 

 regard the fox as one of the worst enemies of his stock 

 of furred and feathered game, and endeavour to prevent 

 to the utmost of his ability injuries to it by foxes, but 

 without taking, maiming, or killing the animals responsible 

 for the mischief. 



It is necessary to preface what I have to say upon this 

 subject with the expression of the decided opinion that the 

 fox is blamed for a great deal that it does not do, and is 

 frequently made the excuse for inefficiency upon the part 

 of more or less incapable keepers. Before accepting state- 

 ments of the many kinds made as to the extraordinary 

 powers of foxes as game-destroyers, it is as well to dis- 

 abuse the mind of the belief that they will outwit every 

 means taken to prevent their misdeeds. The contrary is 

 the case. The fox, wary, cunning, and persistent as it 

 really is, is as equally susceptible to fear of the scent, 

 presence, and handiwork of man as almost any other 

 creature that prowls through the preserve, and if one 

 resolutely sets to work to prevent its depredations, success 



