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FOXES AT HOME
AND
REMINISCENCES
BY
COLONEL J. S. TALBOT
{Late Shropshire Light Infantry, and Assistant Commandant
Royal Military College, Camberley).
May our vixens be respected,
Our coverts never blank ;
And every honest sportsman
Ride in the foremost rank.
— Earl of Longford.
HORACE COX,
«'THE FIELD" OFFICE, WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM'S
BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C.
1906.
LONDON :
HORACE COX, "THE FIELD" OFFICE, WINDSOR HOUSE
bream's BUILDINGS, E.C.
TO
gtB ^fb f rtenbB of f^e (Baxi^ W>uni.
IN SINCERE APPRECIATION OF MUCH KINDNESS SHOWN
HIM DURING MANY VERY HAPPY YEARS SPENT
IN THEIR MIDST, THIS LITTLE BOOK
IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE
Having frequently been asked to write some-
thing about the fox, I have at last attempted
to do so in the hope that the result of one's
personal observation and experience, after many
years' careful study of this little animal in his
native haunts, may prove, perhaps, of some
slight interest, not only to those who, like
myself, have his welfare so much at heart, but
to others to whom his habits ''at home" are
a sealed book. And if the following pages
should afford the latter a partial glimpse even
behind the scenes, and create an additional
interest in, and sympathy for, their subject, my
humble efforts will have been well repaid.
Living as I have done for nearly twenty
years in the midst of the wild track of heath
and forest which extends for many miles on
every side round Camberley, I have luckily had
VI PREFACE.
exceptional opportunities of observing foxes in
their native haunts from year to year — oppor-
tunities denied to many — of which I gladly took
every advantage. One has been able in the
early summer to sit for hours and watch the
cubs at play, with nothing to disturb the solitude
save, perhaps, the occasional harsh screech of a
passing jay, or the hoarse croak of a carrion
crow in the distant pine woods, making it
difficult to realise that one was within a mile
or so of what, I regret to say, may almost now
be considered a suburb of London.
As one lies in bed at night one frequently
hears the foxes barking far out on the heath —
a weird sound, which reminds us of how lonely
and lovely this country must have been some
150 years, or less, ago, in the exciting days of
Dick Turpin, mail coaches, and the highwaymen
of Bagshot Heath. All this is changing rapidly
— alas ! too rapidly — and soon I fear the bark of
the fox will here be heard no more, and the
bricks of the builder will have taken the place
of the pine trees and the heather !
J. S. T.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Fox Page i
CHAPTER 11.
CUBDOM 32
CHAPTER III.
TuRNED-DOWN CuBS ... ... ... ... ... 69
CHAPTER IV.
Mange in Foxes ... ... ... ... ... 88
CHAPTER V.
Odds and Ends ... ... ... ... ... 102
CHAPTER VI.
Tame Foxes ... ... ... ... ... ... 125
APPENDIX.
Corse Coverts and Artificial Earths ... ... 140
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
" Here's to the Fox/' with his Home amongst the
Rocks Frontispiece
A"Bundog"Fox Faciiig page 5
A " Greyhound " Fox Page 6
Fox in Pollard ... ... ... ... ... „ 18
''Stub Bred'" Cubs • ,. 35
Their First Appearance. (Cubs about Fifteen Days
Old) Facing page 36
Cubs about Three Weeks Old ... ,, 40
" After Dinner Rest Awhile.'" (Cubs about Six
Weeks Old) Facing page 48
Vixen Carrying Cub Page 55
Forty WinkS: (Cubs about Seven Weeks
Old) Facing page 84
A Mangy Litter „ 94
" Dolce far Niente ■■ „ 126
Artificial Fox Earth Page 151
INTRODUCTION.
In ALBION'S isle when glorious EDGAR reigned
* «= # -^ *
CAMBRIA'S proud Kings (tho' with reluctance) paid
Their tributary wolves ; head after head,
In full account, till the woods yield no more,
And all the rav'nous race extinct is lost.
# # # ^ *
But yet, alas ! the wily fox remained,
A subtle pilfering foe, prowling around
In midnight shade, and wakeful to destroy.
— SoMERViLE ("The Chace").
What a pity it is that the wild animals of our
islands are so quickly disappearing, those, I
mean, which do really very little harm, and
which might well be spared to form a con-
necting Hnk between the present and the past ;
the great extent to which the preservation of
game is carried on nowadays and, alas ! the ever
increasing curtailment of those wild and unfre-
quented districts where they formerly lived in
comparative security are slowly, but surely,
wiping them out.
Xll INTRODUCTION.
The bear and the wolf have long since
disappeared. These, however, we do not regret !
The marten cat and the polecat, the badger
and the otter, unless where the latter is strictly
preserved for hunting purposes, are in many
places very rare indeed, and the two former
almost extinct, and were it not that the fox,
the subject of these pages, happens, at present,
to be the petted animal which provides for rich
and poor the sport of kings, healthy exercise,
and employment for thousands, and puts more
money in circulation, directly or indirectly, than
all the other wild animals in the world put
together, he too — for, alas ! he has many
enemies — would, in our islands, soon become
a thing of the past, with nothing to remind
future generations of the bygone glories,
delights, and excitements of the chase, save
a few antiquated volumes in our libraries, or
perhaps a dusty and moth-eaten mask or brush
hanging in the ancestral hall !
FOXES AT HOME
CHAPTER I.
THE FOX.
The vulpine race is pretty well distributed all
over the face of the earth, almost every country
and climate has its fox, or foxes of sorts, though
I believe the first of their kind, a dog and two
vixens, were imported into Australia as late as
1864, and were purchased for the Melbourne
Hunt by Mr. George Watson, a brother of the
late sporting master of the Carlow and Island
Hounds.
The Arctic regions have their represen-
tative with its lovely silver fur ; and the
sweltering African desert has three (or four)
distinct breeds — a large red fox, something like
our friend at home, which the natives call a
''wolf," a long-legged, lanky, light-coloured,
yellowish-grey fox, and the small " Fennec "
about the size of an ordinary cat, though longer
2 FOXES AT HOME.
in the leg, with large and almost transparent
ears, and great round sloe-black eyes, which
shine like those of a gazelle.
In Egypt proper, and round Cairo, the fox is
v^ery like the common English fox, and we
hunted him there with a pack of foxhounds in
the '' eighties " ; but the sport was poor, as we
ran from one cotton field to another. There was
no jumping and little or no scent, no matter
how early one started; but, like ''the Drag," it
gave one an excuse for galloping over our
neighbours' fields, which the '' fellaheen " did
not at all appreciate I
When quartered in the Palace of Zafferan at
Abbassiyeh, outside Cairo, one could always, on
looking out of the windows in the morning, see
foxes lying under the orange trees and shrubs
in the Khedive's garden underneath, but, as a
rule, they were mangy brutes, and when dis-
turbed either went to ground in the water-pipes
under the road, or scampered away across the
desert to the Mokhattem heights close by.
The Cyprus fox greatly resembles the large
light-coloured animal of the Soudanese desert,
evidently belonging to the same species, and
I never saw any other kind in the island.
THE FOX. 3
Here in the British Isles there were at one
time three quite distinct breeds, the '' grey-
hound," and the '^bulldog" (or '^ mastiff"), the
native foxes of the mountains, and what we
may call the ''common" or "ordinary" fox,
or that of the vale. These three have from
frequent importation and exportation become so
intermixed nowadays that in most places they
have lost their chief characteristics, and are
hardly distinguishable.
The first mentioned animal is now prac-
tically only to be found, pure bred, in the
mountainous districts of England and Scotland,
though more common in Ireland, where fewer
strangers have been introduced, and a stout
hybrid is scattered pretty generally over the
greater part of the country, as the greyhound
often descends from the hills far into the
plains, not only in search of food, but when
" pairing," and there crosses with the lowland
fox, to whose progeny it transmits, to a
great extent, its strength and stamina, if not
its size.
Frequently towards the end of the season,
and also at other times, one of these hardy
highlanders is found in the plains many miles
B 2
4 FOXES AT HOME.
from his mountain home, for which he imme-
diately sets his mask, and good indeed must
be the scent, and rare the pack of hounds
that can catch him before he reaches a place
of safety.
I well remember a few of these occasions,
runs which one dreams of for the rest of one's
life. One instance especially, when the Ormond
Hounds, finding near Kilrue, in the Nenagh
part of their country, ran away from the field
to and over the Devil's Bit mountain, many
miles distant, where none could follow, and
vanished in the mist. Mr. W. T. Trench was
then the master, and, as we toiled up the
mountain side in hopeless endeavour to catch
up and stop the fast disappearing pack, the
shades of evening coming quickly on, we sud-
denly became enveloped in a fog so dense that
one could not see one's horse's head, and we
thought it more prudent to descend until we
should reach some road or lane along which we
could proceed with safety. We could hear
hounds running hard far away up in the heath,
until finally the cry died away and was lost in
the distance. Hounds did not return to kennel
till the following morning, when they all turned
THE FOX. 5
up without one missing, but we never could
ascertain if they eventually killed their fox. I,
personally, arrived home at 12.30 a.m. that
night on a very tired horse !
A splendid specimen of the vulpine tribe is
the greyhound fox, the largest and stoutest
member of his race, long, limber, and grey — a
wolf on a small scale — the brush not quite so
bushy as that of the ordinary fox, and with, as
a rule, only a few straggling white hairs at the
tip, his grizzly mask, when obtained, being a
trophy of which any huntsman may well be
proud.
The ''bulldog" is quite the reverse of the
greyhound, a short-legged, very dark, thick-set
fox, whose dusky coat is flaked with white,
black underneath, broad head, very short dark
snout (hence his name!), on which is a small
white patch, the brush as a rule tipped with black,
his whole appearance giving the idea of strength
rather than speed, whilst the greyhound com-
bines both. These foxes are mostly found in
the mountainous districts in Wales, but I have
no doubt they exist elsewhere.
The ''common fox" is an animal which
does not require much description, every child
FOXES AT HOME.
knows, or ought to know, what he Is Hke.
This species has not the same length of Hmb
K i^^^^^d}^^^
or size as the greyhound, and therefore lacks
to a great extent the latter's speed and
THE FOX. 7
Stamina, nor has it the strength of the bull-
dog ; however, it is the most graceful animal
of the three, its whole body being a picture
of activity and suppleness, and though far
inferior in pace to the greyhound, it is sur-
prising how quickly, and without apparent
effort, it can, for a certain distance, draw away
from even the swiftest foxhound, and with
what wonderful dexterity it can at times, if
surrounded by hounds, extricate itself from, as
it were, the jaws of death.
The natural and preponderating colour of
the common fox is a yellowish red, with light
ashy throat and belly, though in some districts
this shade varies to a certain extent, as the
colour of wild animals, like that of many birds
and insects, assimilates itself more or less to
its surroundings — a kind provision of Nature
to hide them from the sharp eyes of their
enemies. However, in many places, owing to
the change of blood introduced by foxes of
different breeds being imported from elsewhere,
and turned down to increase the stock for
hunting purposes, the colour of the common
fox assumes a variety of shades, and the
old characteristic almost disappears. One
S FOXES AT HOME.
■sees in the same district red, grey, sandy,
sooty, squirrel, and mouse coloured foxes ;
some with white tags, some with black, and
others with no tag at all at the end of their
brushes. I remember even a pure white fox
being killed at Wentworth (the Countess de
Morella's, near Virginia Water), by the Garth
Hounds, some years ago, but this of course w^as
a most rare occurrence, though, strange to say,
.another white fox was killed elsewhere that
-very same season. Cubs of the same litter are
.almost invariably of the same shade of colour,
usually that of the vixen (or female fox), and
the " dog" cubs, as a rule, have the large white
tags at the end of their brushes. Vixens some-
times have them also, but it is the exception ;
they usually have no tag at .all, or merely a few
white straggling hairs, and of course many dog
foxes have none either.
It is surprising how people differ in their
ideas of the colour of a fox. How often has
one heard the same fox viewed over a ride, or
in front of hounds, described by different
observers as being a dark fox, a light fox, a
red fox, a sandy fox, with a large tag, with a
small tag, and so on — really quite bewildering ; so
THE FOX. 9
much so that If you had not seen the animal
yourself, and known there was only one, you
might easily have imagined that half a dozen
foxes were on foot !
To some people all foxes seem alike ; they
only realise that they are foxes, though really
many are as different as one hound in a pack is
from another, and every fox has some slight
peculiarity by which he can be at once distin-
guished, and which those who are accustomed
to view them take in at a glance. Every
whipper-in should not only be able to do
this, but do it, and then how often would the
fatal mistake, which one so frequently sees out
hunting, of halloaing hounds on to a fresh fox,
be avoided !
To distinguish the '' sex" at sight, especially
at a distance, is not quite so easy, and the
most observant persons may at times be
deceived. Vixens have their peculiarities, some
of them rather difficult to describe, though easy
to notice ; they are smaller, carry their brushes
less jauntily, and hold their heads higher when
cantering along, much finer in the neck, and
narrower across the forehead and between the
ears than the dog, and when they stand and
lO FOXES AT HOME.
look in your direction, especially if alarmed, the
latter form with the snout the letter V, those of
a dog more like a W.
There are occasions when at a distance or
moving quickly it is most diflficult if not
impossible to tell for certain. I remember a
first whipper-in of many years' standing, and
who, by the way, is now a huntsman, viewing a
fox to ground almost under his horse's feet,
and when the hounds arrived he told the hunts-
man that it was "a great large dog fox."
Spades were obtained, and digging went on for
an hour or two, only to find on getting to the
end of the hole that the '' fine dog fox " was a
lanky "wet vixen" (i.^., vixen with cubs laid
down). On another occasion a sporting parson,
who also knows a fox when he sees one, stated
that the hunted fox which passed close by him
was a " wet vixen." " She was so close that I
could see her dugs," he said to me in a hoarse
whisper. This I thought a difficult thing to do,
if not quite impossible ; however, he was a
parson, and had to be believed. Shortly after-
wards the hounds, despite every attempt to stop
them, killed this wet vixen, which turned out to be
" a fine dog fox " ! But the mistake is excusable.
THE FOX. II
Many people aver that the "smell" of the
fox, which greatly resembles that of the^ root of
'^ Crown Imperial," is '' peculiarly offensive."
I do not agree with them at all ; not that for a
moment I would like to put "essence of vulp'^
on my handkerchief going to a dance or a
dinner party, out of consideration for others,
who perhaps do not take as great an interest in
the little animal as I do ; but I must say that
when walking through the country, or by the
covert side, a " whiff " of a fox is particularly
refreshing! One immediately thinks of fox-
hunting, pleasant scenes and happy days, past
and in prospective, and the cares and worries
of this wicked world go out of one's head for
the time being, and one might say with
Somervile :
*' Where are your sorrows, disappointments, wrongs,
Vexations, sickness, cares ? All, all are gone ! "
Yes ! there is many a worse smell than that of
a fox 1
The scent of a fox is supposed to be secreted
in a siihcaudal gland close to the root of the
brush. There is, however, on the hack of a
fox's brush, about two or three inches from
where it joins the body, a small bare patch,
12 FOXES AT HOME.
about the size of a sixpence, the position of
which is usually indicated by a tuft of dark
hair. This is the seat of a gland, from which
(according to Linnaeus) an ambrosial odour is
diffused, probably to counteract the other !
While on the subject of scent, perhaps I may
be pardoned for a slight digression. How
diflficult it is to explain this extraordinary
invisible connection between the nose of the
hound and the animal he pursues, or to fully
comprehend that exquisite sense of smell which
enables the one at times to follow the other
with a precision as unerring as if in view.
" Should some more curious sportsman here inquire,
Whence this sagacity, this wondrous power
Of tracing step by step, or man or brute ?
What guide invisible points out their way,
O'er the dank marsh, bleak hill, and sandy plain,
The courteous muse shall the dark cause reveal.
The blood that from the heart incessant rolls
In many a crimson tide, then here and there
In smaller rills, disparted as it flows.
Propelled, the serous particles evade
Thro* th' open pores, and with the ambient air
Entangling mix, as fuming vapour rise
And hang upon the gently purling brook,
There by th' incumbent atmosphere compressed.
The pandng chase grows warmer as he flies
And thro' the network of the skin perspires ;
Leaves a long streaming trail behind, which by
THE FOX. 13
The cooler air condens'd remains, unless
By some rude storm dispersed, or rarefied
By the meridian sun's intenser heat.
To every shrub the warm effluvia cling,
Hang on the grass, impregnate earth and skies.
With nostrils op'ning wide, o'er hill, o'er dale
The vigorous hounds pursue, with ev'ry breath
Inhale the grateful steam, quick pleasures sting
Their tingling nerves, v/hile they their thanks repay,
And in triumphant melody confess
The titillating joy. Thus on the air
Depend the hunter's hopes."
The "courteous muse's" explanation seems
as good as any other, but how difficult it is
to say with any certainty when there will be
a good scent, though often easy enough to
foretell a bad one.
There are one or two things, however, which
can be relied on to indicate whether the scent
will be good or bad.
If, on going out of doors for the first time
on a hunting morning, the cold wind meeting
you in the face sends a sharp needle, as it
were, into the tip of your nose, bringing tears
to your eyes, you need not expect the run
of the season that day, as there will be
absolutely not an atom of scent !
When hounds find late of an afternoon, just
as a hard frost is setting in, I mean a frost that
14 FOXES AT HOME.
eventually keeps hounds in kennel for days and
weeks, then there will be a burning scent and
a brilliant run, provided fox and daylight last
long enough. The roads, however, will be
pretty slippery on the way home !
I have no faith in the '' southern wind and
cloudy sky " theory, having known the loveliest
southern breezes and cloudiest of skies on days
when hounds could not go out of a walk !
Whyte Melville's "Galloping Squire" must
have considered himself uncommonly lucky
when he found a good scent ''While the
dewdrop is melting in gems on the thorn ! "
'Tis seldom so, or when one sees them
glistening on the cobwebs as one rides to the
meet.
If when sitting in the saddle you can wind
the fox yourself, the scent is rising, and the
hounds are unable to feel it, but yet how often
on an occasion like this, when hounds are almost
at a standstill, has one heard " Young Brimful
of Ignorance " (as Mr. Jorrocks would describe
him !) remark : " What rot this is ! Why I could
almost hunt the fox myself ! Can't you wind
him ? " and so on !
Different foxes have different scents, some
THE FOX. IS
much stronger than others ; and hares likewise.
The quicker you can keep the animal moving,
the better the scent ; this is partly why, I fancy,
with a sinking fox the scent so often fails, as he
jogs slowly along he leaves little scent behind,
but if he races so will the hounds.
It frequently happens when hounds strike the
line of a fox that they hunt back to his kennel
in preference to going on with the forward
scent. This is caused by the fact that the fox
had started quickly from his lair, leaving a
steaming track behind him, but had slackened
his pace later on when he found no immediate
cause for hurry ; the scent in consequence de-
creasing with the slow^er pace. Again, one sees
a fox stealing quietly away from covert, with
hounds, perhaps, close behind, only just able to
acknowledge the line ; presently a halloa, or
some other cause, makes him increase his pace,
and when hounds arrive at this spot they race
away as if tied to his brush.
I remember when hunting our regimental
pack of beagles many years ago at Aldershot,
hounds coursing a beaten hare in view along
the towpath of the canal, and the poor brute
as a dying effort turned sharply into the burnt
l6 FOXES AT HOME.
gorse which lined the path, and crouched
amongst the naked stems close to where I stood.
" Ah ! there she hes ; how close ! She pants, she doubts
If now she Hves ; she trembles as she sits ;
With horror seized."
The hounds overshot the mark, but soon
returned and drew the gorse carefully up and
down, passing close to where the hare lay,
partly concealed under some withered bracken ;
one of the best hounds in the pack actually ran
her nose along one of the stems, within a few
inches of the hare, and then passed on. Seeing
hounds could make nothing of it, I eventually
went into the gorse and poked the hare with
my whip, for doing which a lady who was
present called me a horrid, heartless, beastly
cruel 7vretch ! The hare was quite dead and
stiff, and all scent had suddenly ceased with the
poor little animal's life.
" Stretched on the ground she lies,
A mangled corpse, in her dim glaring eyes
Cold death exults, and stiffens every limb."
And yet, although I have hunted them myself
for many years, and thought it splendid sport
and the perfection of hound work, I now almost
agree with the lady.
" Poor is the triumph o'er the timid hare."
THE FOX. 17
Foxes, as a rule, prefer to kennel above ground,
selecting some retired place where they can
rest undisturbed ; their bed being round like
that of a dog, and they are particularly fond of
gorse coverts, especially natural, or self-sown
ones, where each bush is like an umbrella, dry
underneath and thick overhead, which last for
generations without being touched.
The worst of an artificial, or hand-sown, gorse
is that it is generally planted too thick, and,
although it forms a splendid resort for foxes for
some years, is most diflfiicult to draw, or if of
large extent to force a fox away from. In
good soil it soon becomes rampike and thin
overhead, and requires to be burnt (not cut)
every six or eight years. When this is done
the burnt stems should not be removed, as
they help to shelter and protect the young
shoots.
Rhododendrons are an excellent cover, and
have the advantage over gorse that the older
they become the better cover they are. Reeds
round the edges of lakes, withy beds, tussocks
in bogs, where they can curl up high and dry,
although almost surrounded by water, pollards,
old oaks and other hollow trees, they are very
FOX IN POLLARD.
THE FOX. 19
partial to, frequently laying up their cubs in the
latter.
When foxes are much hunted and the coverts
constantly disturbed either by hounds or other-
wise they will lie to ground if possible, and when
pairing the dogs will lie up with the vixens, but
w^hen the earths are stopped continuously they
will often lie out in the open on a dry fallow, in
kale, mustard, or turnips, and in hedgerows,
■especially towards the end of the season, if the
fields are unfrequented. In this way many a
good fox evades the hounds for the greater part
of the season, and a fox found in the open is
almost sure to be a good one.
Foxes dislike bracken, and only use it as a
shelter in the heat of summer and autumn when
it is quite dry underneath, and, in the case of
cubs, close to their earth. It is usually very
•damp lying, and when decaying most destructive
to scent.
In some districts foxes are frequently found
•curled up on the branches of large trees, many
feet from the ground, and it is marvellous the
height they can jump or fall down, with impunity,
like a squirrel or cat.
I remember Mr. Garth's hounds finding a fox
c 2
20 FOXES AT HOME.
some years ago in Ashley Wood, near Birchetts
Green, and running him hard towards Maiden-
head Thicket, when he turned sharp left-handed
just in front of hounds and headed for Hall
Place past the chalk pit close by. As we came
down the road we saw him running along the
top of the pit on the very edge, and when at
the highest part he either slipped or jumped
over, and down he went into the pit. After
falling about twelve or thirteen feet he struck a
slight projection, which turned him completely
over, but he immediately extended his legs
and brush, like a squirrel, and landed with a
'^ flop " on the hard bottom of the pit, rebound-
ing quite two feet. We all thought he was.
smashed to ^toms, but not a bit of it, he was^^
on his feet almost immediately, and went and
lay down in a corner, where he was eventually
killed by the hounds, our difficulty being to-
keep the latter, running with a burning scent,,
from dashing over the edge of the pit, when
many of them would undoubtedly have been
killed. The fox must have fallen some sixty or
seventy feet I should say, if not more, and I am
sure if he had been given a few minutes to
recover his wind he would have been all right ;.
THE FOX. 2 1
he was only for the moment knocked a httle
out of time.
Foxes, when unmolested, will frequently
kennel quite close to human habitations, and
where they can see persons passing to and
fro all day. The ivy on the top of an old
garden wall is a favourite place. They even
take up their quarters in covert close to the
walls of kennels, where hounds are removed
from them by only a few yards, and where
the constant baying does not seem to disturb
them in the least. In fact, when they know
that hounds or dogs cannot get at them,
they treat them with the utmost contempt,
and I have over and over again seen their
tracks in the snow pass within a few feet of
where a most savage dog was tied, and where
the latter had evidently been straining hard
at the end of his chain to get free, whilst
Reynard trotted unconcernedly by. Some
years ago I remember Mr. Garth's hounds
finding a mangy fox in the pleasure grounds
at Heckfield Place, Swallowfield, and after
running him hard for some minutes he just
managed to escape their jaws by climbing
over the high wire fence which surrounds the
22 FOXES AT HOME.
ornamental water there, disappearing into
some rhododendron bushes. Whilst we were
wondering how to get him out, he suddenly
emerged from a clump of shrubs, and sitting
down on the gravel path, within full view of
the field, commenced coolly and unconcernedly
scratching his ear, whilst a couple of hounds
bayed frantically at him from outside the fence
not a dozen yards away, of whom he did not
take the slightest notice, but, after having his.
scratch, trotted away along the path, and came
out of the enclosure of his own accord on
the far side.
The agility of foxes is quite remarkable,
this fox ran up the wire netting as if it were
nothing, whilst it effectually stopped the hounds.
In Ireland the large deer-park walls here and
there are of the greatest service to hunted
foxes, when they are able to place them
between themselves and the pack.
Talking of foxes and deer-park walls remmds
me of an occasion, many years ago, when, in
the Ormond country, a fox escaped over the
deer-park wall at Prior Park just in front of
the hounds, one or two of whom, however,,
managed to get after him. The celebrated
THE FOX. 23
'' Tony " Cashen was then the huntsman, and
he, Lord Rossmore, and Mr. Burton Persse,
for many years master of the Galway Blazers,
were alone with hounds. Someone must go
on. Lord Rossmore rode at the park wall,
and got safely over. " What is at the other
side, my lord ? " shouted Tony. 'V avi, thank
God !'' replied his lordship, as he disappeared
from view !
A fox hardly ever starts in search of food
immediately on leaving his kennel ; it is not
until the witching hour of midnight, or in the
grey of the early morning, after perhaps having
been many hours on foot, that he begins to
think it is time to satisfy the cravings of
hunger. A vixen v/ith cubs, however, will
prowl about in search of food at all hours of the
night, and day also, if in a lonely place. She
generally leaves the vicinity of the earth where
her cubs are, undisturbed, in order, I suppose,
that they may have something to hunt
close at hand, when they are large enough
to play about or follow their mother. This does
not, however, prevent another vixen from
poaching on her preserves, which frequently
happens, when many litters are about. An
24 FOXES AT HOME.
instance of this occurs close to my house at the
present moment.
There is a htter of cubs within 150 yards of
one of the gatekeepers' cottages on the Royal
Military College estate, and the vixen belonging
to it brings them their food from a distance ; the
appearance at the earth of an occasional orna-
mental water fowl from the College lake fixing
the direction she works in ; whilst another from
a litter right out on the heath purloins this
keeper's " Buff Orpingtons," and it takes some
time after she has made a successful raid to
remove their tell-tale feathers from the vicinity
of her earth, where they are easily discernible,
and I fear there will be none left for the other
vixen's cubs to practise on by the time they are
old enough to hunt !
It is very interesting to watch the different
effect which the approach of a fox has upon the
ordinary rabbit, in the evening, or in the early
morning. In the evening (unless it happens
that a vixen has been working the ground, and
picking up everything she can get hold of, at any
time, for her cubs, which makes the rabbits
rather wild) they take little or no notice, some
sit up and stamp with their feet, or crouch
THE FOX. 25
down, while others hardly take the trouble to
scuttle out of the fox's way, and as soon as he
has passed by all goes on as before; ''out of
sight out of mind " evidently being their motto,
and they seem to know instinctively that at this
time the fox has no design on their lives, not
being on the look-out for food.
In the morning it is quite different. The
instant Master Reynard appears the rabbits get
out of his way with all possible haste, as foxes
have a nasty habit of picking up any piece of
food they can easily get hold of as they return
to their kennels, carrying it with them, and
burying it in some convenient spot for a meal
on a future occasion. The rabbits know this
habit well, and make themselves scarce in con-
sequence, all the cheek and confidence of the
previous evening having departed. I have seen
half-grown cubs even bringing home large
rabbits and burying them near their earths, tlieir
plump little bodies showing that they had already
eaten as much as was good for them. When
carrying food foxes will pass quite close without
perceiving you, being prevented from doing so,
perhaps, by the strong smell so near to their
noses. Once I happened unfortunately to be
26 FOXES AT HOME.
right in a fox's path, in some bracken, and had
no time to get out of his way, so lay down and
kept quite still, wondering how near he would
come before he found me out. He almost trod
on me as he went past, and I could easily have
taken the rabbit he was carrying out of his
mouth had I so wished. On another occasion
I was standing behind a tree when a full-grown
cub trotted up and buried a rabbit just at the
other side of it, first scraping a small hole and
then poking the rabbit into it with his little nose,
finally covering it carefully with earth and moss.
Immediately he had finished doing this to his
satisfaction he evidently winded me, as he stared
hard at the tree for a second or two and then
hastily unearthing the rabbit bolted with it out
of sight.
When a hungry fox, especially a vixen, gets
into a hen roost or farmyard, she will frequently
kill every fowl she can get hold of before being
disturbed, removing as many as possible and
burying them at a safe distance where she can
return at her leisure to carry them away.
Many people aver that a fox will on occasion,
say, for instance, if caught flagrante delicto in
a fowl-house, sham being dead in order to
THE FOX. 27
escape, and I have heard numerous tales to the
above effect, for the accuracv of which I am
unfortunately unable to vouch.
Foxes are not polygamous for choice like the
domestic dog, they stick as a rule to one
partner, for the season at any rate. In a
district, however, where the vixens are in the
majority, one dog may take up with two (or
perhaps even more), but when the dogs out-
number the vixens the latter will not admit of
the attentions of more than one, and I do not
think they select their mates, but that it is a
case of the survival of the fittest, and that the
weakest have to take a back seat.
I once saw tw^o dog foxes and a vixen
jogging along together in the morning, the
rival suitors having a fierce '^ set-to " every now
and again, whilst the vixen did not seem to care
much which would be the victor. Eventually
one got the worst of it, and followed behind at
a respectful distance until the others went to
ground in an open earth, when he retired to his
kennel in some high heath and young fir trees
close by, where he was found by the hounds
that very afternoon, and killed after a short run.
What hard luck ! On the same day to be, first,
28 FOXES AT HOME.
discarded by the object of his affections, then
worsted by his rival, and finally eaten by the
hounds. Was ever fate so unkind ?
Rejected suitors and superabundant spinsters
must therefore seek a mate elsewhere or go
without, and as one sometimes, though very
rarely, hears of a barren vixen, perhaps the
latter alternative is the cause, as vixens are
more " stay at home " than the dogs, which
latter will often travel immense distances in
search of a partner in the pairing season. When
found by hounds on these occasions out of their
country, they make straight for home, and
frequently give the best run of the season.
Foxes begin to " pair " towards the end of
December, but in parts where they are much
hunted they seem to come together sooner and
and have earlier litters than where they have
been left in comparative quiet all the year.
Just as the glimmering landscape has almost
faded from one's sight, when the voices of
Nature are silent, and twilight deepens into
darkness, the dog fox steals from his kennel in
search of a mate.
" The conscious villain. See ! he skulks along,
Sleek at the shepherd's cost, and plump with meals
purloin'd ! "
THE FOX. 29
In the daytime, jays, crows, magpies, wrens,
and other birds proclaim at once the presence
of a fox the instant he moves in covert, or when
they catch sight of him in thf^ open ; but in the
dusk a drowsy blackbird heralds his departure.
There is no mistaking its well-known notes of
warning: "Tuk! Tuk! T'wit, t'vvit, t'wit, t'wit !"
The rabbit sits up and stamps his foot, watching
our friend as he passes by, with more of curiosity
than alarm ; the fox, however, turns a deaf ear
to the one, and does not even condescend a
passing glance at the other, but continues on
his way, pausing occasionally and listening
intently to ascertain if the coast is clear. At last,
having apparently satisfied himself that all is
quiet, he utters the peculiar bark which sounds
so weird in the stillness of the night, three
(sometimes four) short, sharp, little " yelps,"
repeated in quick succession, the last with
rather a sad ring in it, and pitched in a
slightly higher key; and, if you are close
enough at the time, you will hear a sort of
rumbling in the throat preceding them, rather
difficult to describe on paper. R-r-r-ow— gow
gow gow (ow sounded as in cow) is
almost as near as one can get it, I think. And
30 FOXES AT HOME.
this he repeats at intervals until at last an
answering cry is heard in the distance ; not a
bark this time but a " squall " ; rather resem-
bling the peculiar screech a peacock frequently
utters when, like " Gabriel Junks" of immortal
memory, foretelling the approach of rain —
a — a a — ow^ is something like it in print !
This is the cry of a vixen, and call and answer
are repeated until the happy couple meet, and
jog off together side by side.
Foxes seldom bark in the summer months.
If they do it is not a good sign and looks as if
a member of the family were missing — having
come to an untimely end.
In Ireland the common belief amongst the
peasants is that a fox only barks when in the
vicinity of a farmhouse, in order to ascertain if
there is a dog about, who would, of course,
immediately reply ; should no answer be
returned, then Reynard knows he may rob the
hen-roost with impunity !
A vixen, when once she has paired, keeps
all other dog foxes at arm's length — what an
example of conjugal .fidelity for weak mortals !
— and should a stranger be run to ground by
hounds in an earth in which she happens
THE FOX. 31
to be lying up at the time, he is either
driven out at once, or compelled to remain
at a respectful distance. How often, when
digging out a fox late in the season, has
one found on getting up to him that he could
have gone in much farther had he so chosen ;
this is almost a certain sign that there is another
fox, invariably a vixen, at the end of the hole.
Had the dog been her mate, they would be found
both together as far in as they could possibly
squeeze themselves.
CHAPTER II.
CUBDOM.
F'oXES breed only once a year, and the period
of gestation is about nine weeks, the same as
that of the dog. But, unlike the dog, foxes
'' consort " together right up to the time of the
vixen laying up her cubs, and even after that
happy event the dog hangs about, though he
does not often put in an appearance.
Some weeks prior to the birth of the cubs,
the vixen begins to look about for a suitable
earth in which to lay them up, and having
selected a large rabbit burrow, or badger's
earth, in some quiet place, where, if possible, the
sun can shine on and into the mouth of the hole
during the day time, she proceeds to clean, or
''draw" (technically called "to work") it
out, and, if necessary, to enlarge it. This
"working " is done in the early morning.
When a vixen begins to "work" the earths
CUBDOM.
33
they should only be "put to" (i.e., stopped in
the morning) when the hounds are coming,
especially if the vixen is growing heavy and
inclined to lie to ground, as if earths which are
used for breeding purposes are kept con-
tinuously stopped right up to the end of the
season, as lazy keepers are so often inclined to
do to save themselves trouble, not only are the
vixens prevented from drawing them out
properly, but they are frequently forced to lay
up their cubs elsewhere in unsafe and perhaps
unsuitable places, not to mention the risk of
their being killed by hounds when unable to run.
Moreover, foxes at any time, on finding the
doors of their earths invariably barred against
them, will often scrape into some large rabbit
burrow just far enough to be able to lie to
ground out of sight, and the coverts are there-
fore often on this account drawn blank. On
more than one occasion I have known hounds
mark a fox so close to the mouth of a rabbit
burrow, into which he had scraped on finding
the other earths stopped, that they were able to
tear him out themselves without any assistance
whatever.
One should not mistake the scratching of a
34 FOXES AT HOME.
terrier at the mouth of a hole for the work of a
fox ; a dog always begins to scratch at the top
of the hole, whereas a fox invariably works
away from underneath. Thus the tendency of
an earth made entirely by a fox is to run deeper
and deeper, enlarged here and there to enable
them to curl up or turn round, and earths in
which vixens lay up their cubs year after year
often run very deep indeed from the con-
tinually " cleaning out " process.
A vixen prefers to lay up her cubs m a single
hole if possible, in order, I suppose, to avoid
the draughts occasioned by many entrances,
which make the chambers cold, and when using
a large earth always sticks to one hole, and
works into it right away beyond all the others,
where the cubs can be snug and warm. The
branch holes, however, have their uses later on,
as they act as store rooms for all the superfluous
food brought in by the vixen, thus keeping the
main hole clear» These larders, however, after
a while become so very offensive from decaying
rabbit skins, wings of fowl, &c., which the cubs
have been unable to eat, that the vixen has
eventually to shift them to other quarters.
Vixens before laying up their cubs frequently
CUBDOM.
35
draw out. several earths, finally selecting the one
most suitable at the time, and shifting into the
others later on.
In some districts vixens lay up their cubs in
the open, in hollow trees, thick heath or gorse,
and under faggot piles, and such like places ;
these, called " stub bred" foxes, are generally
very strong and healthy. Two years ago, when
,.^ :Ai
'*STUB bred" cubs.
D 2
36 FOXES AT HOME.
the hounds were drawing some high heath and
young fir trees, near here, in the middle of April,
a vixen, followed by a brace of tiny cubs half
the size of a rabbit, crossed the ride in full view
of some of the field ; luckily the hounds were
busily engaged with another fox at the time, so
she was able to escape with her little treasures.
I have no doubt these particular cubs were
" stub bred," as there had been no litter in any
of the earths in the neighbourhood.
A vixen makes no bed, and when in due
course the little cubs arrive, which they do early
in March (I have known them in February, but
that is early, and the exception), they are laid
on the dry earth. This is a wise instinct, as, if
there was a bed of any sort, it would soon
become foul and unfit to lie upon, and would
probably give the little ones mange. The cubs
are born blind like dogs, and remain so for about
nine days. Tiny little sooty-coloured balls of
fur they are shortly after they are born, and
covered with a sort of down. They look sweet
(as the ladies say), with their little round fuzzy
faces, and dark blue eyes, with which they gaze
on you wonderingly without any sign of fear. It
was in " The Brownies " (I think?) that the
. , -'/^^
m^
i*
CUBDOM. 37
Owl said, '' Kiss my fluffy face ! " I am sure if
a little cub made the same request no one could
resist it I Vixens when they think they will not
be disturbed lay down their cubs in most extra-
ordinary and unlikely places. One has even
been known to have her litter underneath the
floor of the library in a g/^ntleman's house, to
which she had gained access through an old
ventilating shaft !
The number of cubs in a litter varies from
three to about eight or nine ; five is the average,
though three or four are common, whilst six and
seven are large litters. In the spring of 1901 a
vixen here had eight cubs, and last year the
same vixen, I am certain, went one better and
had nine in the same earth. But this is very
exceptional, and I never care to see a litter of
more than five, as the fewer there are the
stronger they are, and it insures a healthy
stock. In a very large litter there must be a
few weakly ones, generally vixens, and these
have to wait for their food till the others are
satisfied, so they get the worst of everything,
and have to put up with the scraps. A vixen,
however, always errs on the right side in
replenishing her larder, and, if she has five cubs,
38 FOXES AT HOME.
generally supplies sufficient food for eight or
ten!
The sex of cubs in a litter is very variable. I
have known a litter all dogs, and another all
vixens, but I think as a rule the dogs prepon-
derate. In a five litter there are generally three
(and sometimes four) dogs, just the reverse of
a sparrow-hawk's brood, where the five young
ones are almost invariably three hens and two
cocks.
Foxes will not breed in confinement, at least
I have never known an instance, although I
have kept tame dogs and vixens together for
the whole season without result, and as they
were quite as tame as any dog and would follow
me about and come at once at my w^histle, fear
could not have been a factor in the case. I
have also known a tame vixen to be chained up
for weeks in a covert full of dog foxes to no
purpose, though an ordinary bitch similarly
treated has often been successfully crossed with
the dog fox, the whelps taking after their sire
both in colour and habits.
It is not at all an easy matter at first to tell
for certain when a vixen has actually laid up her
cubs, unless you are lucky enough to listen at
CUBDOM. 39
the mouth of the earth just after they are born,
when they can easily be heard crying and
whining Hke kittens ; after a day or so they keep
very quiet, and sleep, I fancy, most of their
time. A sure sign, however, that the cubs have
been born for some days is when the entrance
and bottom of the hole becomes beaten per-
fectly flat, like the capital letter D lying on its
face thus Q ! This is caused by the frequent
passage of the vixen to and fro, her tracks as
she straddles in being at either side of the hole,
and none in the centre, thus differing from one
much used by rabbits, which, owing to their
tracks always being " down the centre," becomes
more or less concave, thus O '
It does not do to bring dogs near earths
where cubs are laid up, or to visit them too
frequently, as vixens are sometimes very
nervous and jealous, and will shift to another
earth if they think their litters have been dis-
covered, sometimes taking them clean away ;
but if one goes quietly up to within a few yards
and then retires without in any way disturbing
the earth, she will probably take no notice.
However, it is always well to be on the safe
side, and, if you know the cubs are in the earth
40 FOXES AT HOME.
all right, to keep at a respectful distance,
especially when they are in a safe place where
you would prefer them to remain. It is easy
enough to get her to shift if you wish her to
do so.
Soon after she has laid down her cubs the
vixen begins to stock her larder for their benefit,
and, as a fox really gives very little milk, a
juicy rabbit or chicken supplies this deficiency
as soon as the cubs are able to partake of it, at
a very few weeks old, and the remains of
animals and birds of sorts are now frequently
buried close by, which are drawn into the earth
as occasion requires.
The variety of food brought by a vixen to her
cubs is really astonishing. Rabbits, ducks,
geese, chickens, pheasants, partridges, I have
found a woodcock, moles, rats, mice — shrew
mice they will kill and bring to the earth, but
the cubs do not seem to care for them —
squirrels, eggs, and the young of small birds,
larks, &c., which build on the ground, are
frequently brought up alive in the nest.
Foxes in the olden days had the reputation of
being great lamb killers, but this was when game
and rabbits were much more scarce than in
CUBDOM. 41
these days of over-preservation, and they had
very probably to travel far for food. Nowadays
they can find food easily enough inmost places,
and one does not hear complaints of lambs
being taken, and personally I have never known
a fox kill one. At home, when I was a lad, the
shepherd used to put a daub of reddle round
each lamb's neck as a preventive, although he
informed me he had never lost a lamb by a fox,
either reddled or otherwise; the tradition had,
however, been handed down to him, and he was
bound to keep it up ! He also used to blow a
huge Spanish bullock's horn every night to scare
the foxes away, which sounded like a steamer
in a fog, and must have amused the foxes
immensely.
" Said the fox I like good music still,
And away he went to his den O ! "
I have no doubt, where food is scarce and
lambs plentiful, as in hill countries, that foxes
will occasionally take toll, but stray dogs are
more often the culprits, and the poor fox gets
the credit for the depredations of the latter.
Rabbits undoubtedly are the favourite food of
foxes; they must get rid of hundreds in a season,
and farmers and others should be obliged to
42 FOXES AT HOME.
them for doing so. In Ireland the magpies and
rooks which are hung up in the fields as scare-
crows are always taken if there is a Utter hard by,
and like gypsies and badgers, foxes greatly
appreciate hedgehogs. I have only once known
a partridge brought up to an earth for the cubs.
I think the foxes keep these delicacies for them-
selves when they come across them ; also their
eggs, which they invariably eat when they have
killed the sitting bird. In this neighbourhood
they kill an immense number of squirrels, which
abound in the fir woods.
There is no doubt foxes prefer ''fur" to
"feather/' It may be because it is necessary
for digestive purposes, and also it must be a
nuisance plucking a bird when the feathers keep
sticking in their mouths, but the fact remains
that in the billet of a wild healthy fox fur will
always be found. The food, however, which a
vixen brings to her cubs greatly depends on
what is easiest to catch on the ground she
travels over at night when on the prowl.
I have known a vixen feed her cubs almost
entirely on hens and ducks, varied by an
occasional turkey, whilst another close by fed
hers on rabbits and squirrels, with a very
CUBDOM. 43
occasional pheasant, which she had evidently
come across by accident (I do not believe a fox
ever goes out specially to look for pheasants or
partridges, but finds them when searching for
other food, and, of course, makes the most of its
opportunity I), thus showing that, whilst the
latter travelled the fields and woods, the
former prowled round the farm yards and hen
roosts.
Fish, foxes are very fond of, and I have found
the skeleton of a pike which must have weighed
at least ten pounds at an earth more than a
mile from the nearest water, where it must have
been blown on shore after a stormy night and
then picked up by the fox. On the shores of
Lough Derg, when I was a lad, I have often
seen a vixen, in the grey of the morning,
searching amongst the rocks after a blusterv
night for any fish which might have been blown
in (which frequently happens), or the young of
the waterfowl which nested on the lake — coots,
moorhens, &c. — which may be added to the
above list. Foxes also, are very fond of the
ordinary beetle, the wings of which can be seen
in every " billet.^'
The partiality of foxes for fish, on one
44 FOXES AT HOME.
occasion to my knowledge, brought two of them
to a sad end.
A friend of mine whose coverts were infested
with cats from a neighbouring village^ not
Hking to set traps for these pests, lest he might
catch a fox, ordered his keeper one day to
poison a few salt herrings and to place them
where the cats would be likely to find them.
The result of doing so was disastrous, and the
reverse of what he wanted, as in the morning a
fine dog and vixen fox were found lying dead
close to where the herrings had been put down,
and which on examination were found in their
stomachs.
That the dog fox will bring food and assist
the vixen, on occasions, especially when the
cubs are first laid down, or just before, whilst
the vixen is lying to ground, is well known ;
afterwards they only occasionally seem to come
near the earth. When the hounds are still
hunting, however, they frequently lie to ground
with the vixens and cubs.
A vixen had laid up her cubs in a wood close
to my home, some years ago, and late one
evening a neighbour, who lived near the covert,
sent word to say he had just come across a wet
CUBDOM. 45
vixen dead close to his house, which he feared
had eaten poison he had put down for rats,
and he let us know at once so that we might
save the cubs. A dire calamity this was, as it
was the only litter w^e had ; litters that year
being few and far between. The keeper went
at once and recognised the vixen, and returned
by the earth, where there was no food of any
description. He went again at daybreak to
try and see the cubs, and found eight small
rabbits and a leveret at the earth, which had
evidently been brought up by the dog fox during
the night. The cubs were, however, too small
to eat them, and the second day after the death
of the vixen w^e found five tiny sooty balls of fur
nestling in the sun on the dead rabbits, trying
to keep warm, and almost dead with cold and
hunger. We immediately got some milk in a
saucer and put it at the mouth of the earth, and
also cut up some pieces of fresh rabbit for them.
The five crawled back into the earth, but only
three appea*-ed again, and these eventually grew
up fine healthy, strong foxes, and gave good
sport, though, of course, not knowing the lie of
the land as well as if the vixen had lived to
show them the country.
46 FOXES AT HOME.
The curse of Ireland from a foxhunting point
of view is that any landowner can put down
poison indiscriminately in the open, provided he
first puts up a notice to the following effect at the
nearest police barrack and chapel that he intends
doing so : — " Take notice that the lands of ,
in the parish of , are heavily poisoned for
the preservation of game " ; and destruction of
foxes might be added ! Imagine the consterna-
tion of the foxhunting community should the
above lands and parish be in the cream of their
country !
It is only on very rare occasions, when
watching in the evening, that one sees a dog
fox come up to the earth where the cubs are,
though no doubt he is somewhere in the
neighbourhood.
When the vixen is very heavy, or has only
just laid up her cubs, you frequently find rabbits
and other food buried close to, and s metimes
actually in, the mouth of the earth in which she
is kennelled, and I am certain that most, if not
all, of this has been brought there for her use
by the dog, as she herself does not leave her
cubs till some time after they are born, and just
before the event is not, I expect, either in the
CUBDOM. 47
humour or condition to hunt I I have known
the dog fox bring up and bury close to the
mouth of the earth two young rabbits after the
keeper had " put to " in the morning and
stopped the vixen in, as the hounds were
coming to draw the ground. He showed me
the rabbits during the day and stated they were
not there w^hen he '' put to " in the morning ; in
fact, one rabbit was within a few inches of the
stopping. When the hounds left he removed
the stopping, and on listening at the hole we
could hear the cubs whining inside, evidently
only just born. I remained till dusk, when I
saw the vixen come to the mouth of the hole,
look round, and then go back again, and, though
1 remained until it was quite dark, she did not
appear again. In the morning both rabbits
were gone.
The vixen, as a rule, remains in the earth
with the cubs during the daytime until they are
about three weeks or a month old, and she does
not come out until very late in the evening,
when it is almost too dark to witness her
departure. A dark shadow appears at the
mouth of the earth and immediately vanishes,
as she goes straight away without a moment's
48 FOXES AT HOME.
hesitation. Later on, however, when the cubs
have grown stronger, she comes out earher
and has a good look round, frequently, before
starting on her prowl, carrying into the earth
some piece of food previously buried close by,
in order to keep the cubs quiet and in the earth
during her absence.
When the cubs are about half the size of a
rabbit, which would be when they are about six
weeks old or so (it is astonishing how quickly
cubs grow), the vixen kennels outside, and
returns to the earth at nightfall to suckle them.
She does not then bring any food wdth her. As
soon as she arrives at the mouth of the hole^
the cubs, which have evidently been waiting for
her just inside, rush out to meet her, tumbling
over each other in their eagerness, and she
suckles them at the mouth of the hole, sitting
up the while, and keeping both eye and ear on
the alert to detect any approach of danger ; and
should an observer, in his anxiety to get a better
view, unfortunately expose an eager face to her
sharp glance, or snap the rotten branch which
invariably comes underneath one at the all
important moment ; or if the midges and mos-
quitoes, which are often most troublesome at
CUBDOM. 49
this time of the year, persist in getting into his
eyes and ears and under his cap, so that they must
be brushed off, and to remain still is absolutely
impossible, he is detected at once ; the vixen
disappears with the cubs into the earth, and all
is over for that night, and he had better keep
away from the vicinity of the earth for the
next few nights, as vixens are sometimes, very
suspicious, and she may possibly shift the cubs
elsewhere to some earth where it will be
impossible to view them.
Long before the cubs can be seen actually
outside the earth they come to the mouth of
the hole to play or bask in the sun ; one can then
see their tiny claw-marks in the sand. When
cubs are very young their claws stick out like
those of an angry cat, and as they then walk on
their toes the whole ground where they play and
crawl about looks as if it had been scratchell
over with a small iron rake with teeth like nails.
As they grow bigger, however, the claws
sink back into the foot and almost entirely
disappear, and this is one of the chief
distinguishing points between the track of
a small terrier and the ''pad" (or footmark)
of a fox. You can always see the print
50 FOXES AT HOME.
of the toenails in a dog's track, but not
on that of a fox, unless he is traveUing very
quickly or playing on loose sand ; the latter,
too, has a velvety or wrinkled appearance
caused by the thick fur between the toes over-
lapping the ball of the foot. The pads of a fox
are longer and narrower, and the ball of each
toe much more oval-shaped, than those of a dog,
which are broad and round. The difference,
however, is much easier to see at a glance than
to describe on paper. The pad of the dog fox,
which is very small for his size, is much larger
than that of the vixen, and the fore pad is
larger than the hind one in both sexes.
When the cubs come to the mouth of the
earth to meet the vixen they generally play
about a little whilst she is there, but when she
moves off return into the earth again. How-
ever, they soon come out of their own accord
to play round the earth in the evening (and if in
a quiet place also in the early morning and heat
of the day), and this is the time, especially in
the evening, to watch their gambols. Nothing
can be prettier ! Kittens are not in it with cubs
for playfulness ; they pair off and chase each
other all over the place, bowling over and
CUBDOM. 51
chevying each other round every tree near the
•earth. They are especially fond of old tree
stools, from which they soon scrape off the
bark, and seem to eat the ants' eggs and other
insects which they find underneath. Some-
times three or four stand- on their hind legs
together, and, putting their tiny paws round
each other's necks, have a wrestling match ;
and I once heard a man boast that he had killed
four in this position with one shot. Murderer!
That man came to a bad end. '
When the cubs are old enough to play out by
themselves the vixen generally brings some
food with her when coming to the eartb in the
■evening ; this, however, she does not always
permit them to eat at once, but buries it close
by, and should the little cubs, who watch her
with great interest, scratch it up again as soon
.as her back is turned, which they frequently do,
she re-buries it, and continues to do so until
they finally leave it vmtouched. I have seen a
yixen become quite angry when some cub, more
persistent than the others, continued to unearth
some piece of rabbit, after she had carefully
buried it hard by, knowing that the cubs were
then not hungry, and only meant to play with it,
E 2
52 FOXES AT HOME. "
However, whenever they become hungry they
know exactly where to find the food, and this
keeps them going until the vixen returns with a
fresh supply, during the night or in the early
morning.
In every litter tliere is always one cub, the
largest, invariably a dog, who, in the vixen's
absence, seems to take charge of the rest^ comes
out of the earth first, sits and looks about to
see that all is safe and quiet, and then entices
the others out to play by gambolling about the
mouth of the earth, frequently running and
looking down into it, as much as to say, '' Come
on, it is all right I " and then the others come
out and join in the fun.
When the litter is in a very lonely place and
there is no fear of human, canine, or other dis-
turbance, the vixen will kennel out much sooner
than she otherwise would, especially if there is
some thick cover close by, where she can
remain within easy call, as it were. When this
is the case the cubs come to the mouth of the
hole to bask in the sun when they are very tiny,
about the size of kittens, as I expect they find
it rather cold in the earth without their mother.
Only yesterday (April 20th) I went to look at
CUBDOM. 53
an earth in a very lonely part, close to some
thick cover, and found a small cub asleep, quite
five yards from the earth in the long grass ; he
was about the size of a rat, and I thought at
first he was dead and that something had
happened to the vixen. But, on picking him up,
he opened his little blue eyes and stared at me
with surprise when he found I wasn't his
mother ! I put the little chap back in the earth
and went in the evening to see if the vixen
would then turn up. She came all right and
went straight to where I had found the cub, and
searched all about for him before going to the
earth ; evidently she had found him lying about
before ! To-day he was out again basking in
the sun, but wide awake this time, and after
having a good look at me, when I came near
he toddled to the mouth of the hole, and rolled
down into it Out of sight, but presently he poked
his little head out of a different hole and had
another good stare.
What strikes one with very small cubs is how
out of all proportion their heads are to the rest
of their body ; this cub's head being fully a
third of his whole body.
As soon as the cubs are large enough to eat
54 FOXES AT HOME.
their food outside, the vixen shifts them to a
fresh earth. This is about a fortnight or three
weeks after they begin to play out. The first
earth becomes dreadfully foul with the decom-
posing remains of the uneaten scraps of food,
rabbit skins, etc. This is a very wise provision
of nature, as otherwise the cubs would certainly
become mangy from their filthy surroundings.
She draws out another earth a dav or two before-
hand, or moves to one of those which she had
originally worked, so that you can almost always
tell, not only when she means to shift, but
where she intends to shift to, and on finding
they have left the earth they were bred in, gO'
straight to where they are.
When a vixen shifts her cubs in the ordinary
course they are always large enough to jog
along with her, and it is astonishing how soon
they can do this. A cub half the size of a
rabbit is well able to follow the vixen a mile or
more at a "go-as-you-please" pace. Should
the vixen, however, have to shift in a hurry, and
the cubs be very tiny, she will carrv them in her
mouth. When shifting any great distance they
often make use of a convenient rabbit burrow
as a sort of hall-way house to rest at for a
CUBDOM.
55
night or two, and then move on again. Mangy
vixens shift their cubs much more frequently
than healthy ones ; the former are always rest-
less and on the move.
56 FOXES AT HOME.
I remember once a vixen had shifted with her
cubs, which were nearly as large as hares, to
another earth nearly three-quarters of a mile
distant; but one refractory cub, the head of the
litter, remained behind. We were not aware
that she had actually moved, though we knew
where she intended going, and passing close to
the earth one morning very early stopped to
see if the cubs were playing out. A single cub
was playing by himself on the earth, throwing
rabbit skins into the air and catching them
before they reached the ground and other
antics, and we were wondering where the others
were, when the vixen came up and tried to
entice this cub to follow her, trotting away a
few yards, and calling him, a sort of whining
bark right down in the throat ; he followed her
once or twice for twenty or thirty yards, but
then scampered back to the earth again and
went on with his games. At last the vixen
could stand it no longer, but rushed at him, and,
seizing him by the back of the neck, trotted
away with him in her mouth, his little hind legs
dragging on the ground, and she never once
put him down as long as we could keep her in
sight with our field glasses, quite two or three
CUBDOM. 57
hundred yards along a ride. That evening I
went to the earth we expected her to shift to,
and in the direction of which she had gone, and
the cubs were all there right enough, including
our refractory friend of the morning, who seemed
now quite reconciled to his new home !
On another occasion a vixen shifted her cubs
when they were very small, for no apparent
reason, and we could not make out where they
had got to, and searched every rabbit burrow
within a three-quarter mile radius in vain ; how-
ever, as the keeper and I were returning home
along one of the forest tracks, having given
up in despair, fearing that something had
happened to the vixen, and that the cubs must
be dead in the earth, we saw a heap of something
like a lump of peat in the middle of the ride,
which, as I passed it, seemed to move, and out
of curiosity I went to look at it to try and
account for this phenomenon, when lo ! half-a-
dozen little blue eyes peered at me out of the
heap, and here was the missing litter of no less
than seven cubs ! There was a small rabbit
burrow by the side of the ride five or six yards
away, where the vixen had evidently left
them, and, feeling cold, they had crawled into
58 FOXES AT HOME.
the middle of the ride and huddled up together
in the sun. The very tiniest little things they
were too, and as they looked half starved I sat
and watched them (as they were on one of the
most frequented rides in the forest where horses
and dogs might have passed by at any moment,
and how they had escaped till then seemed a
miracle) whilst the keeper went to fetch a
rabbit, and having shot an old doe heavy in
young, the first he came across, we quickly
paunched her and, giving the unborn young a
slit with a knife, threw them still warm on the
little pile of cubs. The change was instanta-
neous ! The little innocent-looking creatures of
a moment before became suddenly transformed
into struggling demons, and they worried the
little rabbits just like a pack of hounds breaking
up their fox, and growled and fiew at each other
till the last particle had vanished, when they
sniffed about for more. After we had given
them a real good meal we put them back into
the rabbit burrow, and watched till evening,
when to our joy the vixen came up and took
them away into the heather with her, the little
mites which we thought could hardly crawl
running along with her like so many little
CUBDOM. 59
rabbits, and we did not find out where she then
shifted them to till many days afterwards.
When cubs, on first coming out to play, or
occasionally in the interludes, keep looking in
any particular direction, you may be quite
certain that that is the point from which the
vixen usually comes up, and if you should
happen to be in that direction you had better
get out of it as quickly as 3'OU can, as if she
finds you your amusement is over for that night
at any rate ; even if she does not shift the
cubs, which she may very probably do. Any-
one who has once heard the squall of a startled
vixen close to his ear will not soon forget it.
At her cry of alarm — W — a — a — ow ! W — a — a
— ow ! — the cubs usually vanish (though once or
twice I have seen them not take much notice
until she preceded the above cry by the ordinary
note of warning, which she gives when they are
very small, and when she is with them on the
earth—" Oof ! '^ '' Oof ! ! " it sounds like). She
then circles round the unwelcome visitor and
continues the squalling long after he has taken
his departure. It is astonishing the distance to
which the sound will carry on a still evening.
One evening lately I sent my small boy to
6o FOXES AT HOME.
watch one litter whilst I went myself to another
over a mile distant ; just at dusk I heard a vixen
squall in the direction he had gone and when
we met afterwards to compare notes I asked if
the vixen I had heard was squalling at him.
He blushingly confessed that she had been, but
that she had come right on top of him as he
watched the cubs at play, and he hoped I would
not hear her.
Once in order to see a litter of cubs at play I
had to climb to the top of a very high fir-tree,
and whilst in this precarious position, watching
them intently through my glasses, the vixen
suddenly and unexpectedly squalled at the foot of
the tree, and I nearly dropped from my perch.
So I mention this as a warning to others, if
ever similarly situated, to sit, or rather hold,
very tight.
When a vixen comes up to the earth to her
cubs she does not remain for more than a few
minutes and then goes off in search of food.
When watching cubs, therefore, it is much
better to wait till she has gone right away
before attempting to retire, as, if within hearing,
she will detect you at once.
As the cubs grow larger, about the size of
CUBDOM. 6r
hares, the strongest follow the vixen about in
her midnight rambles, and I expect she then
teaches the young its first lesson in hunting.
When they become tired they stop at the
nearest earth, and either remain there till the
vixen comes for them the following night, or
work their own way home in the early morning,
when I have frequently met them, and followed
them without being seen for perhaps a mile ; the
little things stopping to rest occasionally at some
convenient rabbit burrow, where they could
easily take shelter in case of danger. I have
also frequently been watching a litter of, say^
five cubs, and only three have put in an appear-
ance ; and I have been wondering what can have
become of the other two when presently the
vixen made her appearance, bringing them along
with her. Seeing cubs in this way at different
earths, keepers frequently try to persuade one
that they have two or three litters, when in
reality there is only one. You must know how
many litters you have before the vixens begin to
shift, as after that it is most difficult, if not
qUite impossible, to tell.
As the summer advances the cubs all get to-
gethei again, and the earths are more or less
62 FOXES AT HOME.
deserted, although they kennel in the bracken
and thick cover, close to some secure place in
case of alarm You can then only detect their
whereabouts by watching at night or early
morning, or by finding their " playground," some
little bank or ride, which they wear quite bare by
their nightly or, more correctly speaking, early-
morning gambols. At night they are more bent
on food, but in the grey of the morning they
always have a lark together before turning in
for the day.
It is quite common to have rabbits and cubs
in the same earth, especially if it is a large one,
but I have also seen them in a single hole,
which evidently had branches inside, where the
rabbits could rest in security without the vixen
interferino: with them. Both seem to live in
harmony till the cubs begin to get about the
earth, when the rabbits have to clear out. When
watching to see the vixen come out of an earth
in hopes of getting a glimpse of the cubs, I have
frequently seen rabbits come out first and go
clean away, and later on the vixen emerge and
do likewise.
I remember once seeing a vixen (in the middle
of the day, too) sitting on a large rabbit burrow
CUBDOM. 63
in which she had laid up her cubs, hterally
surrounded by rabbits of all sizes, some not much
larger than rats, within a few feet of her, grazing
away quite happily, whilst she took not the very
sliehtest notice of them. This was close to the
shore of Lough Derg and in a very lonely spot.
Presently the vixen trotted off and commenced
searching for food amongst the rocks and
sedges by the shore of the lake, returning with
what looked like a moorhen in her mouth, which
she at once took into the earth to the cubs.
What struck me particularly was that the
rabbits close to and actually in the same
earth with the cubs took no notice whatever
of the vixen, hardly troubling to get out of
her way even, evidently having been left
entirely unmolested by her, whilst those at a
distance made themselves scarce the instant
she approached.
I have never known two vixens lay up their
cubs in the same earth, but have frequently
known them shift into the same earth soon
after doing so, or one vixen to shift into an
earth where another had already laid up her
cubs. The cubs of both litters get on splendidly
together, and the vixens both suckle and feed
64 FOXES AT HOME.
them indiscriminately, but when they again
shift each takes her own lot with her.
Some years ago Charles Brackley, Mr. Garth's
huntsman, wrote to me to say that one of the
w^oodmen looking after part of the heath had told
him that he had seen ten foxes together at an
earth on his ground, and that the cubs were half-
grown, and Brackley wished me to have a look
at the earth to see what was really there. So
that very evening, about 6 p.m., I set off, armed
with my field glasses, and took up a position
about fifty yards from the earth, which was
in an old boundary bank, where I could see
both sides, and the different entrances to the
earth. About 7.30 j).m. a vixen came up to
the earth on one side of the bank, and
immediately four small cubs ran out and
commenced suckling her, and presently another
vixen came along the other side of the bank
to be greeted by four other little cubs, and
they were both suckling their cubs at the
same time. In a minute or so two cubs left
off suckling the first vixen, and running on
to the top of the bank saw the other cubs with
the second vixen, when they immediately rushed
down to them, joined in, and commenced
CUBDOM. 6=;
suckling her along with her own cubs,
whilst she looked down smiling on the lot,
and did not In the least resent this seemingly
very cool conduct on the part of the little
strangers. One would have Imagined she
would have snapped at them and made them
clear out of that, but not a bit of It, and when
the cubs had done suckling, which did not take
more than a minute or two, they played all
together backwards and forwards over the bank.
Just at dusk a fine dog fox came up and joined
the happy family, and I was able to write and
inform Brackley that I could go one better than
the woodman, as I had seen eleven foxes, of
sorts, at the earth together, but that the cubs
were still very small. Another dog fox might
have come up later on, as I had no reason to
suppose the one which did come up was the
father of both lots, especially as one litter had
shifted from a distance of nearly a mile.
It does not do to put down food at an earth
where there are cubs, either by way of assistance
to the vixen or to entice the cubs out to eat it,
as It may cause the vixen to shift them to
another earth. As a case in point, I remember
when quite a lad having shot a peewit ; J
66 FOXES AT HOME.
pegged it down in the middle of a ride where
cubs used to come out to play from an earth at
about thirty yards distance, in cover so dense
that it was quite impossible to see them on it,
and having done so I proceeded down the ride
to a bend where I determined to watch till they
appeared. On arriving at the bend and looking
back I saw the peewit was gone, and hastily
returning I found it on the earth, a cub having
evidently taken it when my back was turned.
I pegged it dowm again in the same place, but
watched in vain till dark. The plover was gone
next morning. I now got a live fowl and tied it
on the ride, and walked backwards to the bend
in the ride, but nothing appeared that evening,
and the next morning the hen was alive and well.
I then pegged it down o// the earth, where the
cubs, which I could hear in the hole, would have to
brush past it on coming out, and early next day
went to see the result — '' The hen was still there,
but the foxes w^ere gone ! " The vixen w^as
evidently so frightened by my extraordinary and
stupid (not to say cruel) behaviour that, expect-
ing a trap, she shifted the litter out of a covert
of over 300 acres to an old dry drain nearly
two miles away, where they remained till old
CUBDOM. 67
enough to shift for themselves ! And I realised
then it was better to leave the vixen to
cater for her cubs herself ! Keepers often shoot
rabbits and leave them near the earth for the
vixen to find and bring to her cubs, hoping that
by doing so they will save a pheasant or two
This is a mistake. It is much better to let
a vixen catch the rabbits for herself and to risk
the pheasants.
The vixens remain with, and look after, their
cubs right up to the cubhuntmg season, which
•usually commences early in September, though
some packs start in the latter end of August.
They are then almost full grown and w^ell able to
•look after themselves — in fact, unless a very
late litter, they are more or less independent of
the vixen by the end of June or beginning of
July. The old vixens now become very cunning,
and it is extraordinary how they hide away for
the greater part of the season, being seldom
found by the hounds, and rarely showing any
sport. They supply us, however, with the raw
material, and that is all we should require of
them.
A fox, if left to die a natural death from old
age, would probably live for some twelve or
P 2
68 FOXES AT HOME.
fifteen years; but In the present age, with his
numerous enemies, I much doubt if, in sporting
countries at any rate, many survive for even a
third of that period !
When the morning dawns on November ist
every " cub " becomes a " fox," and from
henceforth he has to fight the battle of Hfe,
trusting entirely to his own resources.
I once had a brace of tiny vixen cubs sent me
by Joe Bowman, the huntsman of the Ullswater
Foxhounds, which he had been rearing on a fox-
terrier bitch. They arrived by parcel post in a
cigar box, and were about the size of rats.
They were too small, and I had to keep them
some time before turning them down. One had
a litter close by the following year, and the
other about a mile away.
On another occasion a Scotch keeper sent
me some cubs, and put the hindquarters of the
vixen in the box for the poor little things to eat
on the way down! Scotch keepers loathe foxes !
I returned him the cubs, much to his disgust,,
substituting a couple of rabbits for their food on
the return journey 1
CHAPTER III.
TURNED-DOWN CUBS.
It is a great misfortune when, through circum-
stances over which you have had no control, it
becomes necessary to turn down cubs, as they
seldom show much sport the first year owing to
their ignorance of the country, and, being half
tame, often fall an easy prey to hounds. Should,
however, your stock of wild foxes have become
exhausted, something must be done, unless you
wish to see your coverts drawn blank the
following season — a calamity too dreadful to
contemplate.
I may mention here that if mange, of which
more next chapter, has been the cause of your
scarcity, it is absolute waste of time and trouble,
not to mention expense, to attempt to turn
down healthy cubs until you have utterly des-
troyed every earth which could by any possibility
have become infected, as the cubs are perfectly
70
FOXES AT HOME.
certain to contract it from them in time, if not
the first year, then the next, when all your
labour will have been in vain. For two or three
years here we spared the main earths and
those in favourite places, stopping them for
months, and trying to disinfect them, not liking
to do away with them altogether lest the foxes
might be driven off the ground. This, however,
was a mistake which we had cause to bitterly
repent later on. The infection will remain in
the earths ior years, so they should be entirely
orot rid of ; the foxes will soon provide others,
either by enlarging rabbit burrows or making
fresh ones. Any fox on the ground, however
slightly infected, should be also ruthlessly
destroyed.
When wishing to obtain foxes to turn down,
the proper method to pursue is to apply to the
secretary of your hunt, who may know of litters
which have to be shifted from other parts of
the country, where perhaps they are not wanted,
as there are always persons in every hunt who
will never allow wild litters, or more than one
perhaps, on their ground, and the fact of your
requiring some may be a great relief to the
worthy secretary's mind, as it is not always easy
TURNED-DOWN CUBS. yu
to get a home for cubs which have to be
removed in a hurry ; but if there are none such
he can furnish you with the addresses of Scotch
keepers and others, from whom they can be
safely obtained without the risk of despoihng
another hunt.
Never answer advertisements in papers from
persons having cubs to dispose of, or who can
supply them on short notice ; remember the fox-
stealer is on the prowl when cubs are about,
and has many agents to assist him in getting
rid of his ill-gotten wares, and it is, I expect,
rather a paying trade w^here foxes are plentiful.
I remember at Eastbourne some years ago
entering Into conversation with an old man who
w^heeled a bath chair, and who after a bit became
very communicative. He told me he used to
earn many a sovereign by catching foxes every
year, till old age and rheumatism forced him to
give it up. He explained fully to me his modus
operandi, very interesting (but which for obvious
reasons I am not going to give here), and the
country (a fox-hunting country, too !) which he
worked ; any foxes caught were left at a public
house on the main London road, the landlord
of which was always ready to give him from ten
72
FOXES AT HOME.
shillings to a sovereign, money down, for every
fox, young or old. He told me he caught a
good number in the season, but '' Lor', sir,"
he said, '' they were never missed ; they had
lots of 'em ! "
Turned-down cubs require to be fed on the
very best. Keepers, as a rule, are most care-
less in this respect. Any vermin they shoot —
hawks, cats, stoats, &c. — they consider quite
good enough for the foxes, and failing vermin,
butchers' scraps, sheep paunches, and other
beastliness and unnatural food, from which
they are most likely to get mange. If told
they may shoot so many rabbits per day,
where rabbits are preserved, the rabbits will
be shot all right, and most likely eaten by
the keeper and his family, the poor little cubs
having to be content with the paunch ; on the
same principle as the Irishman who, w'hen
given some whiskey to apply to a bruised
leg —
" With the Hquor wet his throttle
And rubbed his shinbone with the bottle ! "
thinking he was carrying out his instructions
faithfully by doing so.
Improperly- fed and half -starved cubs,
TURNKD-DOWN CimS. 73
although they look well enough for a time,
will most probably develop mange the
following season, and, having mangy litters
infect the whole country, so that it behoves
one, when turning down cubs, as your duty
to the hunt, to be most particular, and, having
given the keeper definite instructions as to
how they are to be fed, to see that he carries
them out. Remember that it is just when he is
most busy with his young birds that the cubs
claim his careful attention, and this is why
they are frequently allowed to go supperless
to bed, or to fill their little "tummies" with
what cannot be good for them.
Fresh-killed rabbits should be put down every
day in the evening, and cut in pieces to prevent
squabbles at the rate of about one rabbit to
every four cubs, when the latter are very small,
and half a rabbit each later on. It is astonishing
what an amount of food the little beggars will
stow away, and as they grow very quickly they
require plenty of it. At the same time the feed-
ing should not be overdone, in which case they
would bury what remains about the place, and
probably eat it when quite putrid, which must
be bad for them. An occasional fat hen or two
74 FOXES AT HOME.
(where these can be spared) form an agreeable
change in their diet !
No water is required, unless cubs are very
young, as they seldom or ever touch it, though
in exceptionally hot weather I generally put
some down, whenever I felt thirsty myself ! as I
could not bear to think of them being likewise
without any means of relief.
The best plan to pursue when turning down
cubs is to select some rabbit burrow, sufficiently
large for them to get into, close to a fox earth
or other large burrow, in a secluded part of the
covert where they are unlikely to be disturbed,
and this should be surrounded with fifty yards
of wire-netting, some six feet high, the lower
part two-inch mesh, and turned in at the bottom
for about a foot, the turned-in part being buried
six or eight inches in the ground and well
pegged down to prevent the cubs scraping out
underneath, which they will endeavour to do the
first night or two, and then ramble away and
become lost. The cubs should be put into
the earth in the middle of the day, and some
food placed close to the mouth of the hole for
them to eat as soon as they venture out, as
after eating they are less likely to try and
TURNED-DOWN CUBS. 75
escape, and usually commence playing about ;
in fact, I have seen them come out and start
playing immediately they were put down, and it
was only when tired with their gambols that
they seemed to recognise their strange sur-
roundings. The fifty yards of wire-netting allow
a nice space for play ; this, of course, could be
restricted if the number of cubs turned-down is
small.
The wire-fencing should be kept up for two
or three days only, until the cubs become
settled down and accustomed to the earth, and
then quietly removed in the evening, placing
the food near the holes as usual.
The cubs very quickly find out the neighbour-
ing earths, into which -they almost invariably
shift, thus having the advantage of a nice fresh
earth to live in, returning at night for their food
to the old earth, where it should be put down
regularly every evening.
It is a great mistake to keep cubs shut in too
long, as the earth soon becomes very foul, and
they run the risk of contracting mange, by
being forced to live in an unclean earth, from
which the vixen would soon have shifted them
in their wild state.
76 FOXES AT HOME.
Cubs soon begin to forage for themselves,
•especially if there are plenty of rabbits about,
but still a sufficient quantity of food should be
given them till they are nearly three-parts grown.
When, however, they begin to leave any lying
about uneaten, or buried here and there, a cer-
tain amount can be knocked off with impunity,
but it is always better to be on the safe side, as
far as food is concerned, as owing to their rapid
growth they consume a great deal. Here on
the heath I fed them right up to the cubhunting,
partly because rabbits were scarce, and by so
doing I saved the neighbour's poultry and
thereby the funds of the Hunt, and partly in
order to keep them from straying away, so that
when the hounds came they should be found
close home for our own and the keeper's
satisfaction.
Cubs turned down in small thick coverts soon
get to know the country, and sometimes show
good sport ; but they are loath to leave large
woodlands for their first (or the greater part of
their first) season. Here in the forest, as the
ground was more or less disturbed, they in-
variably shifted clean away, after being hunted
once or twice, to some remote part, where they
TURNED-DOWN CT^S. 77
were left In peace and quietness, and we had to
consider ourselves very lucky If a vixen or two
remained behind to reward us for our trouble
with a wild litter the following spring. Out
of eight vixens turned down one season there
were only two wild litters on the ground the
next, but these two gave one a good start, and
we have had never less than three or four wild
litters ever since (some eight or nine years), and
this year (1903) there are no less than seven
litters on the same ground. It generally takes
two seasons at least to re-stock satisfactorily
with foxes any district which for some reason
or other has been entirely cleared out of
them.
On one occasion, when there was only one
wild litter here, of five very fine cubs, three very
small ones, which had to be removed from an-
other part of the country, were sent to increase
the stock, and put down In the usual way, about
half a mile from the earth where the wild litter
was. The second night after the wire was.
removed the cubs disappeared ; the food was
left untouched, and the most careful search
failed to reveal their whereabouts, so that
eventually we had to 2^1 ve them up for lost,.
78 FOXES AT HOME.
being utterly unable to account for their
mysterious and unaccountable disappearance.
One evening, shortly after, I went to see how
the \\n\d litter was progressing, and, to my
astonishment and delight, at dusk out from the
<^arth came the three little absentees, and lay
down a few yards away, looking rather shy, I
thought ; presently the five large cubs appeared
and seemed to take the greatest interest in the
strangers, frisking round them and trying to
coax them to play, which, however, the others
declined to do. There they were at any rate,
safe and sound, and after a few days became
part of the family. Evidently the vixen had
come past the earth where the cubs were and
they had followed her home. She reared them
up with her own lot and saved me all further
trouble.
The following year 1 had four small cubs sent
to me to look after, and this year there were two
wild litters ; something, however, had happened
to one lot, as there were only two cubs in it and
four in the other.
A few nights after the cubs had been put
down, and before the wire had been removed,
the food was found untouched and the cubs
TURNED-DOWN CUBS. 79
gone, but how they could have escaped was at
first a mystery, until on careful search we found,
where the netting had been fastened to a fir-
tree which was growing slightly out of the per-
pendicular, one of the meshes (about four feet
from the ground, where the netting was three-
inch mesh) was pressed into a circular shape
and two or three little red hairs adhered to the
wire, showing where the cubs had climbed
the netting by the tree, and squeezed their
little bodies out through the same mesh.
Whilst examining where the netting was
fastened to the ground w^e noticed the track
of a vixen in the soft earth outside ; so, profiting
by previous experience, that very evening I
went straight to the earth where the nearest
litter was and found two of the cubs there with
the other four, and quite contented, as they were
much of a size. I thought at first the other
two must be there also, but the next night only
the six put in an appearance, and I could see
there were no more in the earth ; however, the
following night we found the two missing cubs
were with the second wild litter, and apparently
quite happy, although only half their size.
Whilst I was watching, the two wild cubs trotted
8o FOXES AT HOME.
away from the earth, round the point of a spur
out of sight, and ahnost immediately they had
gone the vixen came up from the opposite
direction with a rabbit in her mouth, which the
turned-down cubs immediately rushed up and
took from her. After looking at them for a
moment or two, she cantered round the spur
after her own cubs and did not again return.
Thus two years in succession the wild vixens
took charge of the turned-down cubs, and I had
no further trouble, and they were as good as
wild litters. There is this danger, however : if
the wild litters are tainted with mange, as they
unfortunately were in this case, the turned-
down cubs will only too soon, for certain, catch
the infection. I strongly recommend anyone,
therefore, who has to turn down cubs, to do so
if possible close to where there is a wild, healthy
litter; as the vixen belonging to it is almost
certain to take them, or they to tack on to her.
It does not do, however, to give the wild vixen
too many to look after — six all told is quite
sufficient for the one fox to feed — although, as I
said before, the dog will frequently lend a hand.
Dog foxes (and vixens, too) often disappear
unaccountably in many localities at the end of
TURNED-DOWN CUBS. 8 1
the hunting season, so it does not do to trust
too much to their assistance.
Beckford says one can put down cubs at once
in the earth with a wild Htter, and perhaps the
vixen will take to them, but I think this too
risky, as if she smells your hands on them she
may kill them, fearing a trap of some sort, and
the safest plan Is as I have above described.
Turned-down cubs which have to be reared
by hand unfortunately become very tame ; they
turn up punctually for their food, and If you
should not be up to time will probably trot to
meet you, or get into some position where they
can see you coming, and then scamper on to the
earth so as to be there when you arrive.
The food should always be put down late in the
.evening, the later the better, as otherwise it may
be removed by dogs, cats, or other vermin, and
the cubs have to go without. Another great
disadvantage of putting it down in the day-time
Is that the cubs may be seen by outsiders, and
they at once begin to imagine they are losing
their fowls, and send in bills accordingly, and
the poor fox (or the Hunt for him) has over and
over again to pay for a duck or chicken which
lie never has had the pleasure of eating !
82 FOXES AT HOME.
In order to insure the cubs being properly and
punctually fed, I frequently took the food to
them myself, as It has to be done, as I said
above, at a season of the year when the keepers,,
as a rule, are very busy with their young
pheasants, and are in consequence very apt tO'
let the cubs wait, or slide altogether ; or, in
order to save themselves trouble, obtain paunch ;s.
and other scraps from the butcher's, enough at a
time to last a week or so. This is almost
certain to give the cubs the mange. A vixen
does not give her cubs sheep's paunch and
butcher's scraps, and to be successful you must
imitate nature as closely as possible.
There is nothing so good for a cub as a nice
fat rabbit, fresh killed, warm if possible (not
cooked !), and this should be cut into six or
eight pieces, and scattered about the earth so
as to give each cub a chance of getting a piece
without either having to fight for It or to wait
till the stronger are satisfied ; but, even having
done this, should any cub come up late (which,.
by the way, seldom happens), it would probably
find the board swept clean, as the first cub, or
cubs, up Invariably collects and carries off as
many pieces as It can possibly hold In Its.
turnp:d-do\vn cubs. S;^
mouth ; and it is surprising how much one can
carry at a pinch, bolting with it to a certain
distance and burying it, returning immediately
in case any has been left behind.
I remember seeing an amusing instance of
this on one occasion when I had just brought
the food down a little earlier than usual A cub
that had evidently been waiting came up at
once and took away six or eight pieces of
rabbit in his mouth, which he buried under a
tree some thirty yards away, and carefully
poked the earth over it with his little nose. He
then returned and took away all the remaining
pieces in the opposite direction. After he had
got out of sight another cub came up and, after
a hasty search round where the food had beeh,
went straight to where the other cub had buried
the first lot, scraped it up, and, sitting down,
commenced to eat it as quickly as he possibly
could.
Foxes always sit down or stand when eating,
and keep looking about them all the time. You
never see them lying down and gnawing at a bone
like a dog. Presently the first cub returned,
evidently winded the other, and, suspecting what
was happening, rushed off to where he had
G 2
84 FOXES AT HOME.
buried the food. On getting to the top of a
Httle hillock, where he could see the other cub
hard at work, he paused for a moment with such
a funny expression of indignation on his little
face, as much as if he said, " Well, I'm blessed
if ever I saw such cheek ! " and with his brush
in the air, and a little snarl of rage, he dashed
down on the offender, who, seizing as many
pieces as he could carry, bolted right to where
I stood a few yards away, almost running against
my legs, and disappeared in the bracken behind
my back. The pursuer saw me when he had
come within a few feet, and stopped for a second
or two, but after having a good stare he con-
tinued the chase, and, judging from the fierce
scuffling I heard later on, evidently very soon
caught up the fugitive, who had apparently
stopped to continue his meal as soon as he
thought he could do so with impunity.
On another occasion I had turned down two
cubs — a dog and a vixen — the remnants of a litter
which had been dug out and done away with on
a neighbouring farm. They were rather large
when I got them, and it is a mistake to turn
cubs down when they are too old, as they are
then more apt to stray away and be either killed
g^!!-..-
<j«^
TURNED-DOWN CUBS. 85
or lost. It Is also a mistake to turn them down
too young, but I would prefer young to very old
if I had to make a choice. About as large as a
full-grown rabbit Is a good size, as they are then
fairly strong and active, but will not ramble
farther from the earth than they can run back
again in time to escape any passing danger.
The vixen, which was the smaller (as they
usually are) of the above two, soon became
very tame, but the dog was always a bit
shy, and I think he would have gone off
on his own hook had not his little playmate
detained him close to the earth, from the
immediate vicinity of which she declined, for
the present at any rate, to shift. A rabbit
was their daily food, but some water which
I placed at the earth, as the weather w^as very
hot, they hardly ever touched. One evening
the keeper had omitted to obtain the rabbit
(and this shows how necessary it is, If possible,
to see the cubs fed oneself), and as a punish-
ment for him I took one of his laying hens
in default of the proper food. As it had to
die I thought It w^ould be good practice for
the cubs to kill it for themselves ! So
cramming it into a ferret bag we proceeded
86 FOXES AT HOME.
to the earth, where It was duly Hberated. The
hen stood on the earth and looked at her
unusual surroundings with evident alarm, but
made no attempt to run away, whilst we
retired a few^ yards to see what w^ould happen
on the arrival of the cubs. Standing leaning
against a tree, with the empty ferret-bag behind
my back, it was suddenly snatched out of my
hand, and looking round I saw the little vixen
("Joan" I called her, "Darby," the dog)
dashing away with it in great glee. I had
never heard her approach, and she only dropped
it when she found it contained nothing better
than a feather or two. Trotting back to the
earth she and the hen stared at each other
in evident surprise for several seconds, the
latter seeming to be paralysed with fear. At
last the cub rushed up and seized her by the
tail, when the hen seemed to find her voice
at any rate, and made such use of it that
Joan dropped her and bolted, leaving the hen
for the moment mistress of the situation. On
a little hill just above the earth I noticed
Darby, sitting smiling, and w^atching this
strange performance with evident interest, but
he would not descend to enter the lists with the
TURNED-DOWN CUBS. 87
hen whilst I was there, and Joan would have
nothing more to say to her, so after waiting a
few minutes I retired leaving the poor fowl to
her fate. I had only just got out of sight when
a frightful screech from the hen told me some-
thing was wrong, and running back at once I
was in time to see Darby disappearing over the
hill with a whisk of his brush, and the hen in
his mouth, little Joan scampering close behind.
I suppose this was rather cruel, but it was most
interesting, and I am sure the poor hen did not
suffer much in the end, as foxes seize their
victims by the back just below the shoulder
blades, where one grip seems to kill them at
once, and when devouring their prey they
invariably start at the head and neck.
CHAPTER IV.
MANGE IN FOXES.
" . . . . Terrifick pest that blasts
The Huntsman's hopes, and desolation spreads! "'
There are two kinds of mange. One a purely
skin disease, where, although the hair drops, or
rather is rubbed, off by perpetual scratching,
the victim lives a considerable time, daily
growing weaker and weaker from being always
on the move.
The skin becomes very irritable and itchy^
and the get-at-able places which the fox can
bite and scratch soon become bare and patchy.
The brush, as a rule, first appears ragged, then
the sides, flank, and back show up bare, and, if
the wretched animal only lives long enough, the
whole body, except the head and neck, which
seem to be affected last, eventually becomes
devoid of hair and, in bad cases, covered with
a scab almost thick enough to turn a charge of
shot. A fine, healthy, well fed fox is a lovely
animal to look at, but a real mangy brute, which
MANGE IN FOXES. 09
resembles a cross between a monkey and a rat,
on a large scale, is a loathsome and miserable
spectacle.
This skin disease is very catching, and the
earths used by mangy foxes will, as I said
before, infect others for a considerable length of
time, and should therefore always be done away
with.
Cubs of mangy parents, however slightly one
or both may be affected, invariably get the
disease, and, although in many cases it may not
show itself until they are nearly full grown, I
have never known an instance when they have
escaped altogether, or a fox once mangy to
become healthy again. They go from bad to
worse, and it kills them in the end.
The other kind of mange is that w^hich, in a
more or less aggravated form, is transmitted by
diseased parents to their cubs, and being in
the blood it kills the victims much more quickly
than the skin disease. It generally does not
appear until the cubs are well grown, and then
develops with great rapidity.
Starting just across the fox's loins the flesh
rots away underneath the skin, which becomes
a thick scab, and in very bad cases a mass of
go FOXES AT HOME.
worms, the poor brute's snout is eaten away,
poisoned by the virus when attempting to
scratch, and they must suffer awful torture
before they die.
The hair does not fall off either on the
body or the brush, but as far as one can see
the coat looks perfectly healthy, save that just
over the affected part it appears rather rough
and the fur loses its glossy appearance. The
instant the victim moves, however, it is
apparent that something is wrong — the back is
arched like a ferret, and the brush trails the
ground. The gait is a painful hobble, not the
elastic bound of the healthy animal ; the eyes
are almost closed, and, if near enough to notice
it, the expression of agony on the face is
unmistakable.
This disease soon prevents the sufferer from
foraging for himself, and, when the cubs are
deserted by the vixen, they quickly drop off
from sheer starvation. I have never found food
of any sort in the stomach of dead mangy
foxes, but water, as if the poor brutes just
before they died suffered from an unquench-
able thirst.
When a mangy fox is discovered dead, it
MANGE IN lOXES. 9I
should be at once buried, or better still burnt,
as foxes, healthy or otherwise, have a nasty
habit of rolling on a dead comrade, like a setter
or spaniel on a decomposing rabbit or bird,
and this, of course, helps to spread the disease.
It is far easier to start mange in a district than
to get rid of it, and if foxes were left alone to
take care of themselves the disease would be
unknown. Its origin can be traced in most
cases to improper food and unhealthy surround-
ings. In many places where foxes are supposed
to be strictly preserved and where cubs must
be forthcoming in the autumn, if a large head of
game is reared, the keepers have a trick of
killing off the vixens (and dogs, too, for that
matter !) after the season is over, and rearing up
the cubs by hand, feeding them on al4 sorts of
unhealthy and unnatural food. The earth in
which they are located, owing to there being no
vixen to clean it out, or, when foul, to shift them
to another, soon becomes full of putrid and
decomposing matter, the uneaten remains of the
scraps on which they have been fed, and
amongst which they are compelled to exist until
almost old enough to look after themselves. It
is then perhaps too late, and the disease has
92 FOXES AT HOME.
probably got hold of them, destined sooner or
later to show itself.
Some keepers declare that half poisoned
foxes — i.e., those which have picked up poisoned
food, in insufficient quantity to kill them outright
— contract the mange therefrom. But of this I
have no personal experience as, unfortunately,
all the poisoned foxes I have come across
(which I regret to say have been many) had
picked up quite sufficient to insure their never
contracting either the mxange or any other
disease whatever !
In the neighbourhood of large farms where
animals, especially pigs, are slaughtered, and
the offal buried, sometimes quite close to the
surface, foxes very quickly find it out and eat it.
This is very injurious. Horse flesh too is very
heating, and should invariably be hung up out
of reach.
Damp earths, drains, &c., which hunted foxes
use when they find their regular earths closed
in the hunting season, are frequent sources of
mange, as also are artificial earths, which, unless
properly constructed, are worse than all the
others put together, and suffice to infect the
whole country side.
MANGE IN FOXES. 93
The roof of an artificial earth should he made
so low that a fox cannot possibly stand up in it ;
many of them, however, have chambers two or
three feet high, and these soon become very
filthy and full of vermin. Mangy foxes use
them as they can sit up and scratch inside, which
they could not do in a natural earth, and they
very soon become infected and remain so.
Mangy foxes are those which invariably do
the greatest damage ; they find a difficulty in
procuring food, and starvation deadens their
natural timidity. In broad daylight they
will come and take a fowl right under one's
nose, and if they can get into a hen roost will
kill every bird they can get hold of ; but so will a
healthy fox, if pressed by hunger, when he gets
a chance. Many attribute this to mere wanton-
ness or to their love of killing. I do not, however,
think this is so, but that the fox, being ravenous
with hunger, fancies that he can never kill
enough to satisfy it ; in fact, according to the old
proverb, his " eyes are bigger than his tummy.' ^
Let no one, not even the M.F.H., the hunts-
man, the wife of your bosom, the person you
love best in the world — and you are sure to be
fond of somebody! — ever persuade you to give
94 FOXES AT HOME.
a mangy fox, of any sort, even a vixen with
cubs, however sHghtly tainted, a chance.
Kill them at oiice^ destroy the litter and the
earth, no matter how disIncHned to do so,
otherwise you are only putting off the evil
day and giving them an opportunity mean-
while of infecting others, and perhaps doing
an irreparable amount of damage. And the
worst of it is, the cubs of a mangy vixen
drop off just when you want them for
cubhunting, and it is then too late to
substitute turned-down foxes instead. I can
speak feelingly on this matter, as I had a
bitter experience for a year or two, until I
hardened my heart, shot the mangy vixens
on the earth, killed the cubs, although the
poor little things looked perfectly healthy at
the time, and destroyed every earth that
could by any possibility be infected. By
this means I entirely got rid of mange on
ground which had for years been notorious
for its unhealthy foxes, so that for the last
seven or eight years there have been nothing
but beautiful healthy litters, where once two
out of every three, if not the whole three,
were infected.
MANGE IN FOXES. 95
The following instance, amongst many which
could be produced, will illustrate how useless it
is to expect diseased parents to produce a
healthy stock.
A vixen with a slightly ragged brush only, the
rest of the body being to all appearance per-
fectly healthy, had a litter of seven cubs close
by, and, although the dog fox was perfectly
healthy, we thought the litter should be done
away with, as the previous year a litter, also of
seven, with what appeared to be a perfectly
healthy vixen, but the dog fox in this case with
a ragged brush, had all become mangy, and
dropped off before the following November, and I
feared this lot would only do the same. How-
ever, I consulted the huntsman on the subject,
and he said we ought to give them a chance, as
perhaps some of them might turn out all right ;
and, as we were rather short of foxes, I was
then rather glad to comply, hoping against
hope that perhaps the fact of the dog fox being
healthy might make some difference.
During the month of July, to our chagrin, two
or three of the cubs began to look patchy and
soon dropped off, though three or four remained
for some time, as far as we could see, all right.
96 FOXES AT HOME.
We, however, picked up the last of them dead
before the first of September. The vixen
remained on for the best part of the season,
when she, too, died ; and I then registered a
vow — No more chances for mangy foxes !
The next season there were only two litters
on the ground, and, being naturally very anxious
to find out what the vixens (which we had not
seen the whole season) were like, I went one
evening to watch at one oi the earths, and, to
my great disgust, out came what seemed to be
a white fox — not a hair on her body except her
head and neck— and jogged off. This was a
sad blow — one litter out of two of no account,
and I had yet to see what the other vixen was
like ! This one, however, was doomed to
instant destruction. As we could not get near
enough to shoot her on leaving the earth, and
it was impossible to dig her out, three traps
were set in the mouth of the earth, so that she
could not possibly come out without being
caught. At dusk that evening the dog fox
came up — a splendid big fellow he was, too,
with a fine glossy coat, and the wonder was
how ever he paired off with such a hideous-
looking vixen ! However, as vixens were
MANGE IN FOXES
97
scarce, I suppose he came to the conclusion
a mangy one was better than none at all !
He now suspected something was wrong, as he
stole up to the earth and had a good look at
where the traps were set, and then started back
from them, and sat down and waited for a few
minutes, but seeing that the vixen did not come
out he eventually trotted away. We watched
the earth for three nights, but the vixen would
not come out, though we could see where
she came up and scraped the earth back
from the traps on the Inside. On the morning
of the fourth day we found the earth scraped
away on the outside also, until the fox's claws
had actually touched the traps ; this could
only have been done by the dog, and the
traps now were high and dry on the top of
a little bank of earth, over which the vixen
must have jumped when she found she could
do so with impunity. She came up to the
earth that evening, but did not attempt to
jump In, as It would have been almost
impossible to do so without dropping her
hind legs on to the traps, and as I did not
want the poor little cubs to die of starvation
(though I meant to do away with them as
H
98 FOXES AT HOME.
soon as I could get hold of them !) I had the
traps removed. She shifted the cubs immedi-
ately, and, as we could not find out where to,
we feared she had moved right away and given
us the slip for good, since vixens, when they
get a good fright, will sometimes remove their
cubs to a very considerable distance.
Whilst the traps were set at this earth I
went to look at the other litter, which was
about three-quarters of a mile distant from
the first, and when the vixen appeared,
although her brush did not look very grand,
still her body appeared quite healthy. I was
just thanking my stars that one litter at any
rate was all right when she turned round the
other side, and to my horror there was a huge
bare patch on her ribs, the mark of the leper !
which there was no mistaking ! Oh, dear ! Oh,
dear ! What cruel luck ! Now ladies can give
vent to their feelings in tears, and a fit of
hysterics comes in useful at times, to clear the
atmosphere as it were, but what can a poor man
do but swear, and surely this was enough to
make even a saint swear ! The thought of having
to get rid of the only two litters one had got, to
destroy all the earths, and to have to turn down
MANGE IN FOXES, 99
fresh cubs was really quite sickening. But still
there was a bright lining to the dark cloud— the
consoling fact that it coiUd be done, and that it
was still possible to repair the misfortune ; not
like the previous year when in September it was
too late to do anything, whilst now it was only
April. It certainly meant a certain amount of
trouble ; but of what account is trouble in the
interests of sport ?
Having made up one's mind how to act, the
only thing to be done was to set about it as
quickly as possible, so a night or two after the
other vixen had escaped I went up to the earth
to shoot this one, as it was a disagreeable task
1 would not allow the keeper to perform.
Having taken up a convenient position at dark
within easy range of the earth, what was my
astonishment when out came the other vixen !
She had shifted her cubs into the earth with the
second lot. Poor brute! One felt like a
murderer as one pressed the trigger, but she
dropped like a stone without kick or struggle.
Tis very easy to kill a fox. Two nights after-
wards I got the second vixen, and then
nothing remained but to get hold of
the poor little cubs. " Brailsfords " traps, in
loo FOXES AT HOME.
which you catch animals aHve, were set at the
earth, baited with a savoury rabbit's paunch, but
it took a week to catch them all. There were
three in each lot — one lot very small, poor,
miserable little things, all vixens, the other
three two dogs and a vixen — and we made away
with them. Whilst the keeper was taking one
of the strongest cubs, which evidently belonged
to the healthier vixen, out of the trap in the grey
of the morning it kicked up a frightful row,
when suddenly down dashed a huge dog fox
through the heath and thick fir trees, with all
his hackles up, and danced round him, evidently
thinking something was ill-using the cubs.
This shows that foxes will fight in defence of
their young. Though a magnificent large fox,
almost the largest I have ever seen I think, he
too was mangy, and the keeper shot him there
and then, and we were lucky to have got him ;
but the poor brute deserved a better death.
The dog which came up to the first earth we
never saw again.
All the old earths were now destroyed, six
brace of fresh cubs (eight vixens) turned down,
from which we had two litters the following
year. And we have never had a mangy fox or
MANGE IN FOXES. lOI
a sign of one since, and that is eight years ago.
As I write there are seven fine healthy litters on
the same ground, a treat to look at.
In fine, from whatever cause it arises, mange
is a terrible disease, and drastic measures should
be used to eradicate it thoroughly the instant
it appears.
" Atix grands maitx les grandes remedes^^ as
they say in France !
CHAPTER V.
ODDS AND ENDS.
In the preceding chapter 1 mentioned the ex-
ceeding boldness, or rather recklessness, of
mangy foxes, and that healthy foxes will, on
occasions, be just as daring; as an instance
of which I may perhaps be permitted to recount
the following.
In the autumn of 1885 I happened to be
quartered with my regiment on the top of Mount
Troodos, Cyprus, and, having obtained a few
days leave of absence, went on a moufflon
hunting expedition with two or three brother
officers to the Cedar Forest of Stavro, some
forty miles distant. As there were no roads,
only goat tracks, we rode on mules the two days'
journey, and pitched our little camp in a deep
glen in the forest, surrounded on all sides by
high pine-clad mountains rising from our feet.
An icy stream dashed down alongside the small
ODDS AND ENDS. 103
open glade In which our tents were erected, and
disappeared under the ilex and lofty fir trees
into the valley below — a spot lovely in its
loneliness.
Part of our individual commissariat consisted
of two or three live fowls, which were supposed
to lay an egg for one's breakfast in the morning,
or, failing that, to furnish our dinner, which latter
meal usually consisted of roast chicken, eaten
with the coarse brown bread, and washed down
with the wine, of the country, a rough kind of
claret, but excellent withal ; raisins and almonds
for dessert, with a glass of pink ''mastic" to
finish off with. Very good it was, though
simple, and our appetites were excellent !
My hens w^ere bad layers, and all but one had
been converted into the evening meal ! This
little hen, however, survived, and always roosted
just inside the door of my bell tent, close to the
head of my bed.
One lovely night, as I lay awake looking
through the tent door up the steep mountain
sides (which shone like silver in moonlight
bright as day, so that one could almost imagine
oneself in fairyland, so sublime and peaceful
was the scene), suddenly, from up amongst the
104 FOXES AT HOME.
pines, came the well-known bark of a dog fox.
It is strange what different sensations are
awakened, or aroused, by the same cause under
different circumstances. Now at home in the
midst of civilisation the bark of a fox makes one
immediately think of something wild and lonely,
whilst here in the midst of loneliness it had just
the opposite effect, and made one think of home
and civilisation, pleasant scenes, and happy
days. The occasionally repeated cry was
listened to with the greatest interest, as it
appeared to come nearer and nearer, until right
down close to the camp, when there was a
longer interval than usual, and it seemed as if
the fox had been scared by the unusual pro-
pinquity of so many human beings, seldom seen
in those parts, not to mention the presence of a
large dog — half deerhound half sheepdog — which
our shikari, Anastasis, had tied up in his tent,
and which took no notice whatever of either
vulp or his bark. However, we were quickly
undeceived, and before one could realise what
had happened there was a rush and a scramble
at my very elbow, and out of the door of the
tent dashed the fox with my little '' speckelty
hen " in his mouth, and one saw with dismay
ODDS AND ENDS. I05
breakfast and dinner fast disappearing into the
shade of the forest. This could not be borne !
and, regardless of desliah'ille (there were no
ladies in the camp, however), quick pursuit was
made up the mountain side, accompanied by
every "hunting noise" one could think of in
the excitement of the moment, thereby
effectually awakening the camp, and bringing
Anastasis and his faithful dog to the rescue.
The result was most satisfactory, as^ after
going some distance, the little hen was found
chucked into an ilex bush, more frightened
than hurt, and as the huge hound bounded
past on the line of the fox, urged on by the
cheers of his master, we thought our friend.
Master Charles, would have to put his best
foot foremost, or he would be likely to repent
bitterly having invaded the sanctity of our
tent to gratify the cravings of his appetite.
Still, he had some excuse, as little fat hens
were not to be had every night in the forest
of Stavro, and I returned to my tent with
mine tucked carefully under my arm.
The rest of the night was spent in peace, but
I believe I eventually ate that little hen myself !
as, though the fright given her by the fox
Io6 FOXES AT HOME.
seemed to have put her off laying, it in no way
interfered with the dehcate flavour of her
flesh!
Foxes possess the senses of hearing and
smelhng to an extraordinary degree ; one can
hardly realise the immense distance they can
detect the slightest sound, or wind one if
favourably situated ; their sight, however, is
not as keen as one would expect, at any
rate in the day time or dusk, and, if you
remain perfectly still and happen to be down
wind, and lying down or standing by a tree,
a fox will often come within a few feet of
you (as has happened to me on many
occasions) without taking the slightest notice,
although he may look you straight in the
face.
Foxes jogging along a ride, when on the
prowl, almost invariably with their proverbial
cunning keep close to one side oy the other ^
thereby being less conspicuous and able to
get out of sight instantly if necessary. They
seldom go down the middle of a ride for
more than a yard or two, and then generally
when hunted or disturbed, where putting a
distance between themselves and the cause of
ODDS AND KiNDS. loy
alarm is of more Importance than keeping out
of sight. In the forest here, they have a
habit of running the rides when hunted, and
when, being a certain distance in front of
hounds, there is no cause for hurry or alarm ;
they find the rides much easier going than
the heath, which latter is most tiring for foxes
and hounds alike.
A fox has very little sense of fear, his
proverbial cheek seems to more than counter-
balance any innate timidity ; even when hunted
he Is not in the least alarmed, and it is only at
the very last moment, or when quite beaten and
the hounds snapping at him, that he awakens to
the fact that the business is more serious than
he imagined. Notice the expression on the face
and in the eyes of a hunted hare, or a rabbit
pursued by a stoat ; the agonised look In the
dilated pupils show that they are almost
paralysed with terror, and realise to the full
extent their danger, whilst the elliptical pupil
of the fox becomes more elongated, and the
expression even more cunning, as he canters
quietly along, rather enjoying himself than
otherwise.
Foxhunting is undoubtedly the most merciful
Io8 FOXES AT HOME.
of our pursuits of wild bird or beast, and those
who condemn it on account of its supposed
cruelty don't know what they are talking about.
Hunted foxes have been known, over and over
again, to snatch up a rabbit or a fowl, in sheer
wantonness, when quite close in front of hounds,
and if hungry and they had time would there
and then have sat down and eaten them. Only
recentlv with the Garth Hunt a cub came out
of covert with a rabbit in his mouth, regardless
of the fact that the hounds were close behind
him in hot pursuit I Imagine a thrush when
chased by a sparrow hawk stopping to pick up
a worm !
Foxes have the greatest aversion to going
under a gate, and to avoid doing so prefer
to squeeze through the thickest fence. When
one sees a hunted fox crawl under a gate, it
is pretty evident that he is near the end of
his tether, and, as Somervile says —
" Greedy death
Hovering exults, secure to seize his prey."
Foxes have a habit when on the prowl of
fouling every rabbit burrow they come across,
and this is evidently done with the object of
making the occupants lie out. It is most
ODDS AND ENDS. 1 09
effective too, as how seldom, when ferreting,
do we find rabbits In a burrow smelHng
strongly of fox.
I have once or twice come across a small
cub dead, close to an earth, regularly mashed
up and bitten all over by either a dog or a
fox, and on one occasion quite a large cub
w4th Its head hanging by a shred only.
I am rather Inclined to believe this must be
the work of a strange dog fox, perhaps mangy,
or the disappointed suitor of the mother of
the cubs ! I feel quite certain it is not a
strange vixen, as, from what I have said above,
it is manifest that vixens do not object to
cubs other than their own, and their own
fathers will not injure them, as I have on
several occasions seen them wnth the cubs at
the earth, when they seem to take just as much
Interest in them as their mother.
One vixen that I knew of had very bad
luck in this respect with her cubs. She had
a fine litter of seven, about the size of rabbits,
and well able to take care of themselves In case
a dog or anything suspicious came near them,
and one day I found one of them lying all
mangled In the mouth of the earth, only just
no FOXES AT HOME.
dead ; it was in an out-of-the-way spot, too, where
no dog was Hkely to disturb the Htter. The
vixen immediately shifted to another earth half
a mile or more distant, and, after a few days,
another of her cubs was picked up there, killed
in the same manner. I think this must have
been done by a dog fox. The fact, however,
remains, that something will occasionally kill
the cubs, and 1 am convinced it is not their
parents. There are no badgers in the neigh-
bourhood or I should have felt inclined to
suspect them, though badgers and foxes are
often known to live together in peace and con-
tentment.
Talking of badgers, I once went on a badger
hunting expedition into the mountains of Galway,
to endeavour to obtain a few of these animals
for turning down in a very large wood where the
fox earths were becoming disused, and full of
leaves and rubbish, the foxes seeming to have
deserted what, at one time, had been their
favourite breeding places, old badger earths,
this latter animal having been for many years
extinct in our immediate neighbourhood.
Having enlisted the services of a Galway
mountaineer, who said he could '' show ' my
ODDS AND ENDS. HI
honour' the finest badgers in Ireland," for each
of which he was promised half-a-crown, which
seemed to him a chance of making a fortune,
we proceeded up the mountain side, and had
not gone far when we came to a well-worked
badger's earth, and the man started digging,
every now and again putting his arm into the
hole to see if he was getting near the end !
On being asked if he was not afraid of being
bitten when he got within reach of the occu-
pants, he replied, " Is it bitten, your honour, why
would I?" I certainly thought he showed a
certain lack of intelligence by this remark, but
perhaps he knew badgers better than I did, and
if he was satisfied to risk his hand within a few
inches of their mouths I didn't mind ! At last,
after some considerable digging, on stretching
his arm to its full length, he gave a shout of joy
(not unmingled with pain it seemed to meh,
" Begor, I've got her at last, your honour ! " and
then began the tug of war. Anyone who has
ever tried to draw a badger from its earth knows
what a tough job it is, but nothing would induce
the man to let it go until we came to closer
quarters. " Is it to let her go you want me,"
he said indignantly, "and maybe lose my half,
112 FOXES AT HOME.
crown ; the divil a go she'll go as long as I've
hould of her." And it was not until he got his
other hand in and his knees against the earth,
which I had opened a little farther to give him
more room, that he at last succeeded in draw-
ing a fine sow badger, which had him fast by
the right hand, and we had some diflficulty in
forcing her jaws apart to get it free. The
badger was placed in a sack, and wiping his
bleeding hand on the " reverse of his corduroys "
he once more thrust it into the hole, '' For another
half-crown, your honour," he said, with a smile.
In this way we bagged five fine young badgers,
and the man got his fortune, with a little in
addition for the sake of his wounded hand, which
did not seem to trouble him in the least, and he
hoped "my honour" would soon come again,
"long life to me!"
I put these badgers down in the wood, and,
though they shifted to another earth, they
eventually cleaned out every one, and the foxes
returned and bred in them as before. So it was
money well spent.
Foxes and dogs have a marvellous in-
stinct by which they can return to their
native place, though taken away to immense
ODDS AND ENDS I 13
distances, of which numerous instances are on
record.
Some years ago a vixen and five cubs
were dug out at Penny Hill Park, near
Bagshot, and after a few days the six were
sent away and put down in an earth on
Bramshill Common, quite eight or nine miles
distant. The next night the vixen brought
two of them (they were about as large as
hares) back to an earth in the forest
between Broadmoor and the Royal Military
College where I found them the following
morning. Seeing the cubs had come into
the earth in a hurry (as there was no attempt
to draw it out, and it was full of leaves),
and the only other litter in the neighbourhood
not having moved, I went that evening to
watch, and a dog fox came up to the earth
at dusk, and sat with the cubs for a minute
or two, but no vixen turned up, which is
most unusual, as the vixen almost invariably
comes up at dusk, and the little cubs, sitting at
the earth after the dog had left, looked for
her in vain, and I was rather afraid some-
thing must have happened to her. The
next evening the vixen came up at the
I
114 FOXES AT HOME.
usual time, and I recognised her at once as
the Penny Hill vixen. We did not have
many foxes in those days, and what we had
we knew by sight, just as well as our spaniels.
After suckling the cubs, she lay down on the
earth and went to sleep, evidently very tired.
I have never seen a vixen do this before or
since, as when they come up to the earth, as a
rule, they have only just got out of their kennel,
and go off on the prowl without delay. I had
some difficulty in getting away without disturb-
ing her. The next night and the night following
she did not appear at all, and, though the keeper
or myself watched regularly every night for
weeks, she only came up on an average about
twice a week. It struck me then that she was
travelling to and from Bramshill, and I expected
to see her turn up with the remaining three
cubs every day, but they were either unable or
unwilling to accompany her, and evidently the
dog fox took care of these two, as they remained
in the same earth till they were old enough to
kennel out and look after themselves. I told
Charles Brackley, Mr. Garth's huntsman, of
this, and said I should not be the least surprised
if he ran a fox from Bramshill to the Royal
ODDS AND ENDS
115
Military College the following season, as the
vixen would know the lie of the land, and would
probably teach her cubs to work it. But he
replied that in the many years he had been in
the country (over thirty then) he had never
known a fox take that line. However, strange
to say, on almost the first (if not the very first)
meet of the next season at Bramshill, he found
a fox on the heath not very far from where the
cubs had been turned down, and ran it past
Castle Bottom, through Minley Manor, over the
Flats to Darby Green, and across the River
Blackwater, up the Rifie Range at the Royal
Military College, to ground within some three
hundred yards of the earth to which the vixen had
brought back the two cubs ; and this, I expect,
is the line she broughc them by, sticking to the
heath until within sight of home. To have come
direct by Finchhampstead and Wellington
College would have saved her some miles.
About a month or six weeks afterwards they
found another fox, this time a cub, almost in
the same place, and ran him the identical line
till past Minley Manor, when I think they either
lost or killed him. And no fox has taken this
Ime since, nor ever will again I expect.
I :
9
Il6 FOXES AT HOME.
The only person with hounds in the above
run, when they marked their fox to ground, was
Charles Brackley, whose marvellous knowledge
of the country and probable point of the fox
enabled him to keep in touch with the pack
when the rest of the field were brought to a
standstill by the River Blackwater and the
South- Eastern Railway !
Daniel in his " Rural Sports " gives the
following instance :
'' The old Duke of Grafton had his hounds at Croydon^
and occasionally had foxes taken in Whittlebury Forest and
sent up in the venison cart to London. The foxes thus
brought were carried the next hunting morning in a hamper
behind the Duke's carriage and turned down before the
hounds. In the course of this plan a fox was taken from a
coppice in the forest and forwarded as usual. Some time
after a fox was caught in the same coppice whose size and
appearance was so strikingly like that got at the same spot
that the keepers suspected it was the fox they had been in
possession of before, and directed the man who took him to
London to inquire whether the fox hunted on such a day
was killed or escaped. The latter having been the case, the
suspicion of the keepers was strengthened. Some short
time after a fox was caught in the sar/ie coppice, which those
concerned in the taking were well assured was the fox they
had bagged twice before. To be, however, perfectly able ta
identify their old acquaintance should another opportunity
offer, previous to his third journey to town, he had one ear
split and some holes punched in the other. With these
marks he was despatched to London, was again hunted and
escaped, and within a very few weeks was retaken in the
ODDS ANM) ENDS. II7
very same coppice, when his marks justified the keepers'
conjectures, in spite of the seeming improbabihty of the
fact. It is with some concern that the conclusion of this
singular account is added, which terminates in the death of
poor Reynard, who was killed after a very severe chase,
bearing upon him the signals of his former escapes, and
which ought to have entitled him to that levity and privilege
which formerly was granted to a stag who had beat his Royal
pursuers."
Foxes die very game ; I have only known one
instance of an old fox crying out when pinned
by hounds, and that was in a gorse covert on a
very windy day, where he was evidently caught
napping by a couple of hounds, and he squealed
just like a little pig. We could not imagine
what on earth it was, and the master, the late
Lord Huntingdon, rode into the gorse, when he
found it was a fine dog fox, which the hounds
killed in spite of him. Tiny cubs when handled
will frequently kick up a frightful row !
Foxes are fine strong swimmers and, like
hares, do not hesitate to take to water, when
pursued by hounds. I remember many years
ago, in the Ormond country, finding a fox in Kil-
garvan gorse, and running him through Brocka
to Kyleanoe Wood, the usual line, over the
Ballinderry River, where it runs into Lough Derg
at Drominagh Bay, the fox usually crossing by
Il8 FOXES AT HOME.
a small footbridge. The hounds had come
away on his back, and were racing him in view
along the shore of the Lake ; but when we came
to the river we found that recent heavy rains
had flooded the '' callows " at the Gurthalougha
side, making it nearly tAvo hundred yards broad ;
the fox, however, kept on his old line, splashing
through the water till it was deep enough for
him to swim. Hounds and fox were in the
water together, about thirty yards apart — an
interesting and novel sight ; but the fox drew
away from the pack at every stroke, and finally
landed on the far bank some fifty or sixty yards
ahead. On getting out of the water he shook
his sides and brush, turned and looked back at
the hounds, then at the field, and then cantered
quietly away up the bank, reaching Kyleanoe
Wood a quarter of a mile in front of the pack
and finally making his escape.
This fox calmly looking back at the hounds,
after escaping from what we all thought was
almost certain death, reminds me of the narrow
escape of another fox from the very same covert
on a previous occasion. We had drawn the hill
blank, and were crossing a large grass field to
the next gorse when a labourer asked Lord
ODDS AND ENDS. I I9
Huntingdon to draw a small heap of stones
covered with gorse and blackthorn in the middle
of the field, where he said he had frequently
seen a fox. His Lordship, ever ready to oblige,
though he doubted much finding there, did so,
and the hounds had no sooner dashed into the
brake than they came out on the far side with a
magnificent huge dog fox right in their midst.
Under them, over them, through them he
dashed, just missing their jaws by a miracle,
and finally extricating himself from the pack,
with about three feet start, he set his mask for
the covert we had just left on the hillside some
three hundred yards distant. I wish I could
have timed the pace for that three hundred
yards !
" Nor nearer could the hounds attain,
Nor farther could the quarry strain."
And so across the field they raced without a
whimper.
" Silence, you know, is the criterion of pace."
"They'll have him at the edge of the gorse,"
the Master said, and evidently so the hounds
expected, and closed on him as he neared the
covert. However, the fox, with his ears laid
back and his teeth bared as he cast a hasty
glance on either side of him as much as to say,
120 FOXES AT HOME.
'' If you dare to touch me," manfully held his
own, and his feet seemed hardly to touch the
ground. As he neared the refuge the excite-
ment was great, and we held our breath. But
there's many a sHp, &c. When within three or
four feet of the covert side, the fox made a
desperate bound and landed some twelve or
fifteen feet in on the top of the gorse, into which
he instantly disappeared with a whisk of his brush,
whilst the pack went head over heels on top of
each other into the thick outside edge, and a
minute or two was lost before they got on the
line again. Meanwhile in an open space, about
a hundred yards up the hill side, our friend
appeared, and, pausing for an instant, looked
back on the confusion below. I am sure if he
could have spoken he would have said " Sold
again ! " no doubt he thought it, and then,
turning, he quickly disappeared into the scrub
which crowned the top of the hill. We never
caught sight of that fox again, but ran him to
ground with a screaming scent some twenty
minutes later in a cave near the once celebrated
covert, Nannie Moran's Rock.
But there were real straight-necked foxes in
the old Ormond country in those days, grey-
ODDS AND ENDS. 121
hounds, which required catching, and I often
wonder if they are as good now. But 'tis many a
year since in one's boyhood we viewed one away
in those very, very happy hunting grounds,
when the present master Lord Huntingdon was
still a lad.
In many places the foxes of the present day
are, I fear, very degenerated specimens of their
race; there is something artificial about them;
they do not seem to be able to go the pace and
the distance of their wild progenitors, and their
knowledpfe of countrv is also deficient. For a
fox to make a ten or twelve mile point is now
the exception, and the number of such runs
in the season could, I expect, in most countries
be counted on the fingers of one hand ; whereas
formerly they were of frequent occurrence, at
any rate, in wild hunting countries not over-
burdened with large woodlands. And one asks,
'' Why is this ? " There are many causes, but
I think we ourselves are mainly responsible
for the inferior breed. Take the present
system of cubhunting, for instance. In most
countries hounds are taken to some covert
(the smaller the better) where there is known
to be a litter of cubs, with the object of
122 FOXES AT HOME.
well-blooding the young entry and " smashing
up" that litter. The covert is surrounded and
the cubs held up till they are all more or less
exhausted, and one or two, if not more, fall
victims. I do not think this is either business
or sport ! The puppies are well-blooded no
doubt, but I fear at the expense of many a
good run later on in the season, as it is more
than probable that it is the stoutest of the
cubs that are brought to hand, the small and
cowardly ones having quickly found safety in
some large rabbit burrow, of which there are
always many available. When this system is
pursued on every occasion, most of the best
of the cubs have been brought to book before
the regular season commences, and if persisted
in year after year, and only the worst left for
hunting and stock, can it be a matter of
surprise that the breed should deteriorate, as
"like breeds like"? Why not, when the hounds
have been round the covert once or twice,
and a fair idea can be had of how many
cubs are on foot, allow all those that wish
to break away to do so, and then hold up
and kill the laggards and cowards of the lot,
and if they get to ground dig them out if
ODDS AND ENDS. 1 23
necessary. Hounds are much more likely to
mark them to ground with only one or two
on foot than if half-a-dozen are running under
their noses all the time and foiling the covert.
In this way it would insure the survival of
the fittest, and the hounds would be blooded
with the worst of the litter.
I think the ignorance of the country is mainly
caused by the ease with w^hich foxes can get
their living in many districts, so that they have
not to travel many miles in search of food. It
is only tow^ards the end of the season that the
young dog foxes are beginning to know the
country, the vixens mostly sticking close home.
And, alas I how many of those dog foxes, just as
they are becoming worth having, disappear un-
accountably during the summer months, and
never turn up again, every huntsman knows !
The pace at which hounds are bred to go
nowadays has, of course, a great deal to do with
the shortness of the runs. The long, slow
hunting runs which our forefathers loved would
not suit the '' flyers of the hunt " of the present
day at all ! Five-and-twenty minutes on the
grass without a check, and then '' who-whoop,"
repeated ad lib,, is now the order of the day, and
124 FOXES AT HOME.
to insure this the hounds are clapped on the
back of the fox, if possible, as he quits the covert,
and with anything of a scent he is burst up before
he has got his second wind or even made up his
mind which point to make for. Poor old
Jorrocks, if he were present now and started
" counting twenty," would find the hounds were
in the next parish probably before he had
finished ! Tenipora viutantitr ! and one has to
keep with the times and the hounds, if possible !
CHAPTER VI.
TAME FOXES.
Foxes make most charming pets if taken
when young, and I have had many at one
time or another. They soon become perfectly
tame, playful as kittens, and much attached
to their master, though rather shy of strangers.
I would, however, warn anyone intending to
keep a fox as a pet that they will not bear
being mauled, pulled about, and worried.
They have very sharp teeth, and sometimes
do not hesitate to use them, if irritated or
much excited. I have never been bitten
myself, but I know others who have, and
severely, too. The late Lord Doneraile died
from the bite of a tame vixen, but I think
it was trying the poor thing rather highly
to bring her with him on a '' jaunting, car "
to the meet of the hounds, where naturally
she would be very excited, and 1 believe it
126 FOXES AT HOME.
was on such an occasion that the accident
occurred which cost him his Hfe. The fourth
Duke of Richmond died of hydrophobia in
1 8 19, caused by a tame fox, which never left
him, having Hcked the blood off his chin when
he had cut himself in shaving ; which proves
that hydrophobia can be given to a human
being by an animal not itself suffering from
rabies. \'ixens (like our own fair sex) are
much more gentle and affectionate, as a rule,
than the dogs ; but, also, they can be very
'•' snappish '' at times, if put out, and my advice
then is '' leave them alone ! ''
I once had a very tame vixen, which was
given me when she was almost full grown,
and she used to jog along with me when
out for a walk, and hunt rabbits with my
spaniels, manifesting the greatest delight
whenever I came to fetch her for a prowl.
She went through thick cover, heath, gorse,
or bracken, like an eel through weeds, and a
rabbit had to be indeed smart to escape her
in the first few strides. The spaniels, who were
perfectly free from chase, were much disgusted
at what I suppose they considered her wildness
and want of training, as whenever she went
TAME FOXES. 1 27
away in hot pursuit of a bunny they immediately
came to heel, and looked at me as much as to
sav, " She deserves a good licking when she
comes back."' " Kitty" (which was her name),
however, never either deserved or got a licking.
She invariably on catching a rabbit bolted with
it to some distance, and, having carefully buried
it, immediately returned to look for another;
one grasp of her powerful jaws and it was all
over with poor bunny !
When I first got Kitty I always took her out
on a chain lest she might run away, and I might
not perhaps be able to catch her again, but
more especially as she invariably wanted to run
and have a game of romps with every dog she
saw, and I feared some of them might resent
this and injure her. After about a fortnight I
dispensed with the chain, and let her loose
inside a large enclosure surrounded by wire
netting, where I could easily catch her if she
became refractory ; but only on one occasion
had I any difificulty, as she always returned
immediately I called her. On this occasion I
had taken off her chain for the first time in the
open, and she was cantering about quite
contentedly, when suddenly some soldiers
128 FOXES AT HOME.
appeared in sight, and evidently the red coats
scared her, as, after staring at them for a
moment or two, she bolted cle^n away, occa-
sionally stopping and looking back, and then
going all the more quickly. In vain I followed
and called ; she disappeared over a neighbouring
hill, still going strong, and after looking for her
all over the place till nightfall I had reluctantly
to return home without her, thinking to myself
" Good-bye, Kitty, I'll never see you more," and
I felt dreadfully grieved, as I was much attached
to the little animal.
Next morning I was out by daylight, and
having shot a squirrel for her breakfast, in case
I ever found her, which I considered most
doubtful, as I feared she would for certain be
lost in the forest, I went to where I had seen
her last the previous evening, and taking up a
position where a good view^ could be obtained
began to call and whistle. Within five minutes,
to my joy, I saw her coming bounding along over
the heath, and she seemed as pleased to see me
as I certainly w^as to see her, and jumping on my
shoulder rubbed her face against my cheek like
a cat. This was how she always showed her
affection. I gave her the squirrel which she
TAME FOXES. 129
Immediately ran away and buried, and returning
curled herself up between my feet, whilst I sat
on a tussock, and to all appearance went fast
asleep, as she seemed rather tired, evidently
having been on the move all night. She
remained thus for nearly an hour, as I did not
like to disturb her rest. Suddenly she sprang
up and, placing her fore-paws on my knee like
a dog, looked over the heath in evident alarm,
and presently I saw the keeper appear along a
ride quite 300 yards away, so that whilst
apparently quite sound asleep her senses were
very wide awake. Foxes often sleep very
heavily, especially after a hard night and pro-
bably a late meal, and in this way frequently
fall victims to the hounds before they have time
to get well on their legs.
I frequently took Kitty out ferreting, and she
got to understand the business at once, and
entered into the sport with great delight. She
did not take the slightest notice of the report of
the gun, but sat listening to the rumbling of the
rabbits underground, and then placed herself
close to the hole from which she expected them
to bolt, and the instant they appeared she had
them in her grip. I was always afraid the ferret
130 FOXES AT HOME.
might appear first and trembled for the con-
sequences, but she did not seem to mind the
ferrets much. Once I hung the ferret bag,
with a couple of ferrets in it, on the branch of a
fir tree about seven feet from the ground and
four or five from the bare stem, whilst I
worked a burrow close by with others. Kitty
heard the ferrets in the bag scratching and
kicking up a row, and having spotted it rushed
up the bare trunk, and, springing out, seized the
bag in her teeth, wrenched it off the branch,
and bolted with it at full speed, only being
forced to drop it after a stern chase of about a
hundred yards, w^hen the ferrets were recovered
unhurt.
I have never noticed Kitty, or a wild fox for
that matter, ever attempt to catch anything
by stealth, or to approach closer to her prey by
crouching or crawling, like a cat would on a
bird. Whenever she saw a fowl or rabbit fifty
or sixty yards off she invariably went straight
for it, and before the wretched victim seemed
to realise what was the matter she was within
a stride or two and then escape was almost
impossible.
Foxes are frequently represented in old prints
TAME FOXES.
^3
and paintings as peering round a haystack at a
flock of geese on a common, ducks on a pond,
or perhaps over a bank at rabbits playing close
by ; they may do this, but I think it is more
fancy than fact. It is seldom one has the
chance of seeing a wild fox catch his prey, and
when I have been lucky enough to do so they
either rushed up at sight without the slightest
attempt at concealment, or pretended to trot
unconcernedly by, getting, in the case of
rabbits, between them and the covert or their
burrow, and then making a sudden spring when
within a few feet of ther victim, which they
seldom missed. The first method is that
usually adopted.
I was always most anxious to ascertain
how it was that a fox, like a badger, could
locate with such certainty the actual position
of a nest of young rabbits, and be able to
burrow right down on top of them, often many
feet from the mouth of the hole. We have all
seen the small round hole, some two inches in
diameter, right over the nest through which the
young had been drawn and devoured. Some
thought the position was fixed by hearing, and
others by smell, but, having found some rabbit
K 2
132 FOXES AT HOME.
'' stops," I took Kitty to show me how It was
done, and her procedure in each case was
always the same.
Having found the " stop," which I ahvays
allowed her to do for herself, remaining at a
respectable distance, she opened it carefully
with one paw^, and then listened most intently
at the mouth of the hole, one paw up, and
the whole body perfectly rigid for several
seconds, perhaps a minute, during which time
she seemed to ascertain the direction of the
hole ; then she stole very quietly on a few
feet from the mouth of the hole, and placed
her ear close to the ground with the head
at one side, like a terrier listening for rals^
frequently turning round the other ear, and
after a minute or so moved on farther until
she eventually arrived exactly over the nest.
Then she seemed to get very excited and
started scratching as if for her life, and in
a very short time had the young ones out,
nest and all. When she got down to the
nest she generally put in her paw and it
seemed as if she was folding it round the
young rabbits ; she then pulled the nest out
with her teeth, most of the young ones
TAME FOXES. 1 33
coming with it, but she took care to search
well for any left behind.
In the latter end of April in the year 1885,
during the campaign in the Soudan, I happened
one day, when on the march across the desert
with my company, to pass by a fox earth in a
heap of sand under some mimosa bushes, in
which one could see there was a litter of cubs.
When we halted for the day some distance
further on and formed our " zariba,'' I called for
a few volunteers to return to dig them out. It
was a novel use for the ''Wallace" spade —
part of the soldiers' equipment — but after
digging for about an hour we came upon two
tiny little cubs about the size of rats, a dog and
a vixen ; there was another in the earth, but a
fox terrier we had with us unfortunately killed
it. These little cubs were not many days old,
the sweetest little darlings, of a light-cream
colour, with large dark eyes like a gazelle, very
pointed faces, and little black snouts, their tiny
brushes tipped with black — a species of the
" Fennec " we ascertained afterwards. We
brought them back to camp in triumph;, and
then came the question of how they were to be
fed. A goat had luckily been looted from the
134 FOXES AT HOME.
enemy whilst we were on the march, and I
"commandeered" her for the foxes, who were
placed in a small box in a bamboo orange crate
about two feet square in a corner of my tent,
where they seemed quite happy and comfort-
able, and not in the least frightened, staring at
me with their great, large, wondering eyes
whenever I went to look at them. The
feeding process was at first rather slow. The
goat had to be milked into one of the
men's tin canteen covers, and in this I
placed my hands for the little cubs to lick
the tips of my fingers, for which I afterwards
substituted pieces of bread, and in a very
short time they ate the bread and drank the
milk readily. I was now congratulating myself
that my duties as wet nurse were over, when
we got orders to march to the next zariba at
Handoub, some ten miles further on, and I
had to start at once with my company ; but
before doing so gave my servant the most
careful instructions as to bringing on the
foxes and goat with my baggage, which was
to follow.
Some time after our arrival at Handoub my
servant and baggage-camel hove in sight. On
TAME FOXES. T 35
one side were slung my gun case and the
oranee crate with the cubs, safe and sound ;
but, to my horror, on the other side I found
the poor goat tied by the legs head down-
wards quite dead — and no wonder, after being
carried in that position for ten miles ! Oh,
Tommy, Tommy Atkins, you are an absent-
minded beggar, if ever there was one ! This was a
calamity ! Now what was to be done ? Luckily
a tin of condensed milk was found amongst
my subaltern's commissariat, and on this very
indifferent substitute for goat's milk the foxes
had to subsist for a day or two, until one
morning I happened to have shot some sand
grouse and tried them with their warm hearts
and liver, which they flew on and gobbled
hke little demons ; the very scent of blood
seemed to alter their whole natures.
My work was now, h')wever, easy, as I had
only to shoot them a little bird every day,
and give them an occasional cup of the con-
densed milk. They were duly christened
''Jack" and "Jill."
In the burning days of midsummer, when the
thermometer ran up to 130 degrees damp heat
in the shade daily, and not less than 1 10 degrees
136 FOXES AT HOME.
to 112 degrees at night, when men were dying
with heat apoplexy and enteric two or three
a day, and one was not allowed outside one's
tent from 6 a.m. till 7 p.m., these little foxes
became part of one's life ; they were as tame as
cats, about the same size, though longer in the
leg. I taught them all sorts of tricks, and made
a steeplechase course for them round inside my
tent. The little things quite entered into the
spirit of the game, and used to become so
excited when they saw me preparing the fences ;
and when I let them out of the orange crate,
w^ent almost wild with joy. Round and round
the tent they raced, one after the other, a dozen
times, until they had had enough, and then they
trotted up and put their little paws on my knee
to ask for a drink of condensed milk and water,
and submitted to be quietly returned to their
crate. This was the daily routine until I was
ordered to Cyprus in the end of July, and, of
course, my little pets went to. When we arrived
at the top of Mount Troodos, where we were
quartered in that island, we found it dreadfully
cold at night, almost freezing ; and fearing the
effect of the great and sudden change on the
foxes, 1 got a strip of soldier's blanket for each.
TAME FOXES. ' 1 37
and, cutting four little holes in it put their legs
through and sewed it tightly over their backs.
This they seemed to enjoy immensely, and never
made the slightest attempt to divest themselves
of their unusual covering, which they wore the
whole time they were in the island. I brought
them to England with me in the month of
November, and, having no place to keep them,
with much regret presented them to the
Zoological Gardens, where I thought they would
be well looked after. Unfortunately they were
put into the same quarters as the common foxes,
and a few days after I had a notification from
the Secretary to say " Jiir' had succumbed to
the cold. He very kindly sent me her little
skin, which I could not bear to look at, even.
'' Jack " was put into more comfortable quarters,
where he lived for five years.
About a year after I had placed the foxes at
the " Zoo " I happened to be in town and
seized the opportunity of going to see how^ my
little playmate was getting on. I found the
poor little thing curled up in some straw in the
corner of his house, with a lot of small boys
peering at him through the bars and trying to
attract his attention by poking in pieces of
138 FOXES AT HOME.
biscuit and orange peel for him to eat. He,
however, took no notice whatever of them.
Having hunted the urchins away, I called to
him through the bars, using the little coaxing
expressions he was accustomed to hear in the
Soudan, when he immediately raised his head,
gazed attentively at me for some time, and
then, getting up, came to the bars, through
which he thrust his little snout and licked my
hand, returning at once to his kennel and lying
down again, whilst I retired with a lump in the
throat and wondering how I ever could have
parted with him. His little skin is now with
" Jill's," but I do not like to get them stuffed,
as they never can at all resemble the real little
darlings which helped me to beguile the tedium ,,
of those gloomy days now long gone by.
There are men both good and wise, who hold
That, in a future state,
Dumb creatures we have cherished here below
Will give us joyous greeting, when we pass the Golden
Gate ,
Is it folly that I hope it may be so ?
CONCLUSION.
Having now endeavoured to trace the daily
(or nightly) routine of a fox's life from the hour
of his birth till he is fit " to face the music '' of
the hounds, I leave his after career for abler
pens than mine to describe, and in the words
of the late Major Whyte Melville wish my
readers-
Good speed, a good line, a good lead,
With the luck of the fence where 'tis low ;
Not the last of the troop may you hear the Who-whoop,
Well pleased as you heard " Tally-ho.''
APPENDIX.
GORSE COVERTS AND ARTIFICIAL
EARTHS.
I honour the man, whate'er be his rank,
Whose heart heaves a sigh when his gorse is drawn blank.
In order to keep foxes it is necessary to have
coverts in which they can rest undisturbed,
and, as already mentioned, it is difficult to
beat the ordinary gorse, which is a favourite
resort at all times and in all weathers.
How many gorse coverts do we know whose
names are '' famed " in the annals of fox-
hunting as the starting point or finish of some
of the best runs on record, not only in the
good old times, but at the present day !
Gorse coverts may be classed under two
heads, the "natural" or self-sown, and the
" artificial " or hand-sown. The former, how-
ever, is much the better of the two, and,
APPENDIX. 141
though taking many years to mature,
eventually becomes practically everlasting,
whilst the latter, although often proving very
holding and satisfactory when properly planted,
requires occasional renewing to keep it up to
the mark.
Natural gorse coverts are the result of
scattered bushes having been allowed to grow
without interference for years — one might
almost say centuries — until the gaps between
them became eventually filled up, the whole
presenting from the outside the appearance
of a solid and impenetrable mass of green.
This, however, is not the case, the natural
gorse is almost invariably hollow underneath,
but the outside, from having for years been
kept close cropped by cattle, especially horses,
with the same effect as the frequent clipping of
a hedge, has become desperately thick, and
forms a weather-proof covering, under which
the foxes love to curl up, dry and warm,
sheltered from every wind and rain, and through
which they can move with the greatest facility.
This hollowness of the natural gorse con-
stitutes its special charm, not only from a
vulpine, but from a sporting point of view. A
142 FOXES AT HOME.
fox is less likely to be chopped when he can see
clearly around him and has room to dodge his
enemies, whilst hounds find it much easier to
force him away ; in fact, instances are on
record when the crack of the huntsman's whip,
or a note on his horn, has got an " old customer"
on his legs and off, with a brilliant run the
result. Whereas in a dense covert, through
which he must force his way, the same fox
might easily, on a blustery day, or when sleeping
soundly after a late or heavy meal, have
ignominiously fallen a victim to the pack before
even having time to jump from his kennel.
It is a great mistake to cut a ride in a natural
gorse. I have known a magnificent covert,
which had never hitherto been drawn blank,
completely spoiled for many years by doing so,
and though the rides were eventually allowed to
grow up, it never seemed the same again This
gorse, about fifteen acres or so in extent, was
quite ten or twelve feet high in places, so much
so that Avhen the rides were cut the huntsman
could almost ride in under the impenetrable roof
through the naked stems, some five or six
inches in diameter. But the ruthless axe had let
in the daylight, and one could see underneath
APPENDIX.
143
for yards in every direction, and the foxes lost
their former sense of security, and shunned their
hitherto happy home.
The owner tried to remedy matters by laying
part of this covert, i.e., cutting the stems of the
bushes half through, and then bending down
the heads, but this was not satisfactory ; most
of the heads died, the foxes never took to this
part, and the hounds could scarcely draw it ;
and as time after time we sat in our saddles
and saw them with difficulty trying to tread
their way through the tangled mass, with
nothing but rabbits scuttling across the rides,
one felt it was indeed " Ichabod," and that the
glory (as well as the foxes) had departed.
Verb. sap. Never cut a ride in a natural
gorse, no matter how large ; it is better to find
a fox in it, though it may take some time to
get him away, than to draw it blank !
The more you can make an artificial gorse
resemble the natural one the better, so that it
is an excellent plan if there are many s'orse
bushes about in a suitable situation — a rough
piece of ground on the sunny and sheltered side
of a hill, if possible interspersed with boulders
and hillocks, and without rabbits — to assist
144 FOXES AT HOME.
Nature a bit by filling up the gaps with
gorse seedlings, bushy plants about a foot or
eighteen inches high, digging holes and
planting them just like any ordinary tree, but
not too close ; from three to five feet is not a
bad distance, when not pressed for time and a
lasting covert is required. It is extraordinary
how quickly these plants run up, in some four
or five years according to the soil ; the time
slips by without your noticing it, and you soon
have your reward. This covert should not be
fenced in, but cattle, horses, and sheep
encouraged to graze through it and to crop the
young shoots, thus making each plant thick
and bushy and when they begin to approach
close to each other the cattle will soon avoid
going through the covert of their own accord.
With no cattle to crop the shoots and keep
down the herbage around the young plants,
they soon become either choked by the rank
growth of grass or bracken or run rampike, and
are easily destroyed by a heavy fall of snow.
Some years ago we planted two coverts as
above, but unfortunately one had to be fenced,
the consequence being that that left open,
though taking longer time to mature, was iust
APFEiNDIX. 145
coming to its prime when the fenced covert had
to be burnt, having been beaten down by a
heavy fall of snow, and rabbits got in and
destroyed the young shoots in the following
spring, the thick, stunted bushes of the other
being regardless of rabbits and weather alike.
If there are no wild gorse bushes on the site
selected for the covert, it can be made entirely
of seedlings, but the wild bushes protect the
latter, and seem to help them on, whilst you do
not notice the nakedness of the land so much,
or think the gorse is taking an unconscionable
time to grow. " A watched pot never boils,"
they say, nor will the gorse seem to grow if you
are always looking at it.
In case gorse plants are not procurable,
recourse must be had to seed. The ground
must be tilled, and fenced with wire netting if
there are rabbits about, and the gorse seed
sew^n broadcast with corn, oats for choice, to
shelter the young shoots.
Irish gorse seed, which can be obtained
from Messrs. Sutton, Reading, for about 2s. 6d.
a pound, is by far the best and hardiest, and
plant about 15 lb. to the acre. We once put
30 lb. per acre, but it was too thick ; the gorse
146 FOXES AT HOME.
plants ran up like corn, and the second year,
though holding foxes, it was almost impossible
for the hounds to draw, and very tiring for them.
A huntsman does not like to be left on foot in
the middle of a dense jungle, up to his waist,
when the hounds go away with a good fox, and
this might easily happen if he had to dismount
to try to induce them to face a too thickly sown
three-year old gorse. This covert held splen-
didly for five or six years and then was
completely killed by a heavy fall of snow, the
rabbits, of which there were many about,
absolutely declining to allow the young shoots
to grow again.
April is the best month to plant the seeds in,
and no manure is necessary, though, if the
ground is very poor, some artificial top dressing,
such as superphosphate of lime, after the seeds
have started will help ihem along.
Artificial coverts should be of sufficient size
to admit of a part being burnt about every
eight years or so, or even more frequently — it
depends on the soil and the consequent rapidity
of growth of the plant. Never cut the gorse, it
bleeds. Burn it; leave the naked stems to
shelter and protect the young shoots, and keep
APPENDIX.
47
out the rabbits, and in about two years' time the
burnt part will hold again.
In order to avoid the risk of destroying the
roots by the fire when the gorse is not very
high and the soil light or peaty, it is well to
select a dry day with a fairish breeze, and to
burn down wind ; the flames will then run
quickly through the heads of the bushes and
leave the roots untouched. A high rampike
covert in a stiff soil should be burnt against the
wind or on a calm day.
About Christmas or early in January is a
good time to burn the gorse, before the sap
gets up, this gives the plant time to recover
from the shock, and the young shoots get
the benefit of the fresh ashes.
If burnt too late in the spring the budding
of the young sprouts is retarded, and, more-
over, weeds of all sorts spring quickly up,
partially smother them, and prevent them
spreading.
If possible do not sow gorse seed where there
is bracken, as the latter will soon run up,
and not only smother the shoots but spoil the
covert by keeping it damp.
148 foxes at home.
Artificial Earths.
In a fox hunting country and where rabbits
are plentiful it should seldom be necessary to
have recourse to artificial earths ; it is much
better to trust to Nature and let the foxes make
shift for themselves, which they will invariably
do, if the coverts are kept quiet, either by
enlarging some rabbit burrow or, should the soil
be light or sandy, by excavating on their own
account ; the former course is, however, the usual
one, especially when the holes run deep and
dry.
Artificial earths, if not properly constructed,
may easily become a plague spot in the country
side, as, unless perfectly dry, they are very apt
to give mange to every fox that uses them, or,
should fox-stealers be about, by acting as traps
in which they can be easily captured ; they
should, therefore, not be resorted to unless in
extreme cases, such as, when having no natural
earths on one's own groundj an endeavour must
be made to induce those foxes which breed on
that of a neighbouring vulpecide to come where
they will be safe, at any rate until the litters
begin to break up, and the cubs to look after
APPENDIX. 149
themselves, when they are not so easily get-at-
able or exterminated eii masse.
It is necessary to use a certain amount of
judgment when selecting the position for an
artificial earth. It should either be in an open
glade in the covert or some very secluded spot
in the open, if possible on the side of a hill or
gentle slope (being more likely to keep dry than
if on the flat) facing south, and where the warm
rays of the sun will strike down on, and into,
the mouth of the earth all, or the greater part
of, the day, especially about noon, as, when the
vixen is lying out, the cubs, even when very
tiny, love to come to the mouth to bask and
sleep in the sunshine.
Natural earths, especially in sandy soil which
is easy to burrow into, as a rule run very deep,
so, when there is no danger of the earth being
damp, do not be afraid of digging down.
Artificial earths are, as a rule, made much too
near the surface. Let '* deep and dry'' be your
motto. The shape of the earth, too, should be
considered, and the holes should be straight, to
enable the vixen to clean them out without
difficulty ; those formed like the letter Y are
generally most satisfactory, and only one
150 FOXES AT HOME.
entrance is required ; the foxes will soon make
others if they want them.
Begin by digging a trench about two feet
wide, and certainly not less than four or five
feet deep, as much more as you please, straight
into the face of the hill for about fifteen feet,
and then branch off to the right and left (Fig. i),
at not too sharp an angle (about 130 degrees
with the main), for from fifteen to twenty feet
more, keeping the bottom of the trench, as near
as possible, on a horizontal plane ; next, down
the centre of this trench dig a smaller one
eight inches wide by seven inches deep, to
constitute the " earth," covering the latter with
tiles or fiags as wide and as long as you can get
them ; the sides of the hole are in this way
formed by the natural soil, which is nmch to be
preferred to either stone or brickwork, the latter
being apt to become damp and mildewy, and
foxes frequently contract mange from the chill
occasioned by lying against a cold, damp
surface, especially If run to ground very heated,
wet, and exhausted ; the natural soil, however,
will keep them dry and warm. The ends of the
holes should be prolonged, some two feet, say,
beyond the artificial covering by tunnelling with
152 FOXES AT HOME.
the spade for about that distance (Fig. 4) ;
this will make a small natural hole with earth
overhead, and induce the foxes to continue the
excavation.
The upper trench should now be filled in and
the soil rammed down hard, otherwise in very
wet weather the rain may percolate down into
the earth through the loose soil and make
it damp, and, in order to still further prevent
this, the surface should be elevated about
six inches or so above, and overlapping, the
-sides of the original trench (see Fig. 2) ; the
rain will, therefore, run off on either side of
the excavated earth, which will remain dry.
In front of the mouth of the earth a heap
of sand should be thrown, to give it a
natural appearance, as if it had been drawn
out of it, and where the cubs can lie and
bask in the sun. A few young rabbits may,
with advantage, be turned into the earth,
and the foxes, if there are any about, will
soon find them there, and, going m after
them and seeing how nice and snug it is,
will probably take to it as soon as the
smell of the fresh earth has worn off. If
there are no foxes about, some cubs had
APPENDIX. 153
better be turned down in the earth In the
manner described in Chapter III. and the
earth should not be stopped during the next
hunting season, or until such time as the
foxes have taken well to It and made It their
home. One has to risk being pitched into
by the M.F.H. should he run a fox to
ground there ; but, never mind ! the foxes,
when they find it a secure asylum, will take
to it all the quicker, and you will then be
well repaid later on, and the master will
smile again when your coverts are never
drawn blank !
Never allow a terrier to be put into your
artificial earth, as the smell remains for a
considerable time, and destroys the foxes'
sense of security In it, and will most probably
prevent the vixens from laying down their
cubs there.
Never under any circumstances make a
'' chamber " in the earth ; doing so is one
of the chief causes of artificial earths being
so objectionable. It becomes full of filth
of all sorts, mangy foxes love to kennel
in it, as they can sit up and scratch, and
often die there, and this will infect the
154 FOXES AT HOME.
earth for years and necessitates It being
done away with. A fox should not be able
to stand or sit up in the earth, but, at the
bifurcation of the holes (Fig. i) there should
be sufficient lateral space left, by rounding
off the angles, to enable it to turn round easily,
and this is where a fox usually curls up.
Should, it be necessary to make the hole
any wider, or deeper, let the foxes do so
themselves.
The figures (p. 151) will show what I have
endeavoured to describe above, as far as the
construction of the earth goes, and the dimen-
sions of the actual hole, given in Fig. 3, are
taken from measurements of natural earths
made entirely by foxes themselves, and it is as
w^ell to stick as closely as possible to Nature,
artificial earths, as a rule, being made far too
large and roomy, which is a great mistake.
The actual mouth of the natural earth is, of
course, much larger, and the ground, as a rule,
sloping gently down into it. This should be
similarly arranged in the artificial earth.
The flags or tiles forming the roof of the
earth should overlap the sides by ^ve or six
inches at least, otherwise, in light or gravelly
APPENDIX. 155
soil, the latter are likely to crumble away under
the great weight on top ; to prevent which,
should any difficulty be experienced in obtaining
tiles or flags of a sufficient length, it becomes
necessary either to put brickwork or stones
along the sides, or, as an alternative, to arrange
half nine-inch pipes on two single rows of
bricks, running parallel to each other, and nine
inches apart, which answers fairly well (Fig. 5).
The pipes and bricks should be fastened with
cement ; this w^ill keep the earth very dry. It
is a great mistake, however, to make the earths
too elaborate, the simpler they are the sooner
the foxes wall take to them, and the more likely
they are to remain healthy and satisfactory.
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