FOX AND BADGER. 



27 



We cannot but admit that these charges amount to a 

 serious indictment, and ^ve will now hear what can be urged 

 on the other hand in the defence. First, then, we plead 

 that there is no anim^al, tame or wild, which is such a per- 

 sistent and clever rat-catcher, Mice, also, both the common, 

 the long-tailed, and the destructive short-tailed field vole, 

 he will catch and eat in large numbers. If you doubt his liking 

 for these, leave exposed the dead rats and mice when a rick is 

 threshed, and you will find that where there are foxes all 

 will probably have disappeared in a night or two, and that 

 the work is done by these will be shown by the neatly 

 reversed skins of the larger rodent. It is a somewhat sug- 

 gestive fact that in the recent plague of rats which for two 

 years levied so heavy a toll on the agricultural produce 

 in Lincolnshire, the injury was confi.ned to the fens and 

 those districts in w^hich foxes are not preserved, or where 

 there is no hunting. A brace of foxes will keep the rats in 

 their vicinity well within bounds. His depredations amongst 

 game and poultry might be effectually prevented if keepers 

 w^ould supply the vixen during the time the cubs are with 

 her with a few rabbits and rooks left conveniently near her 

 earth. So likewise with poultry. When we want to keep 

 strawberries and fruit from blackbirds and thrushes we cover 

 them up with nets. And if landlords and tenants would 

 supply suitable shelter and accommodation for poultry, the 

 loss from foxes and other vermin, including the two-legged 

 sort, would be proportionately small. In these days of 

 depressed agriculture poultry-rearing has become an im- 

 portant item in the balance-sheet. We can scarcely expect 

 a fox^ however kno^ving, to discriminate between wild and 

 tamxC birds, and we are sorry to say that the conditions of 

 keeping poultry in our agricultural districts are usually such 

 as offer him every inducement to help himself. In the vast 

 majority of cases there is no sort of poultry-house on the 

 farm, the hens nesting anywhere, all over the place, and at 



