29 NOVEMBER 1935, Page 17

Many Foxes

• The English fox is one of the few animals that has multiplied under legalised pursuit. If you look back at the records of some of the hunts (one of which, the Heythrop, has just celebrated its centenary) you will conic across much evidence that foxes were few and far between. An inordinate time was spent in finding a fox. The sacrosanct person of that most huntable animal, ingeniously fostered by the hunting community, much more than compensated for his pro- claimed losses. Foxes today are rather over numerous in • some counties, especially the thickly wooded districts, and arc fairly numerous probably in every county. The badger on the other hand grows scarcer and scarcer through the southern and eastern parts of England. You find him in the fosses of Roman camps, on Hereford hills and by the • cliffs of ,Pembrokeshire. You will seek in vain in many of the Shires (so named) and the Home Counties. It is also true that foxes have vanished altogether in some haunts