EARLY CUBBING.
Were the vixens more than usually prolific or precocious this year ? In two cases, within my range, the local Hunt has been asked to bring forward the first day of cubbing because foxes were over-numerous or Over-anxious. Cubbing began in parts of Essex on August 10th. Some farmers have com- plained of the excessive activity of the cubs in the harvest field, of all places, and one day's cubbing was spent wholly in drawing fields of standing grain. Abnormally prolific years occur, but I should not have thought that this was one of therh. However, it is certain that foxes are unusually numerous in some districts ; and like the young game birds they are also unusually old for the date. Personally, I never before saw partridges so strong on the wing as were some of the coveys early in July. To-day both young partridges and wild pheasants are scarcely to be distinguished from their parents.
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