Foxes are sometimes found among pheasants where wire, or string
netting, has been set up at the flushing-places, to prevent the birds
running instead of flying, and to cause them to rise and fly at a
sporting height and pace. When it is too late, and the beaters have
come to the flushing-place, the indignant "cock-ups" of the pheasants
are heard, and then they rise in a great rush, too thick and fast for
the convenience of sport. We remember one case where a stampede of
pheasants so enraged a sportsman that he ordered his loader to bowl
over the old sinner of a fox. Should a fox show himself during the
beating of a wood, it would be wise to give him every chance to escape.
What usually happens is that the beaters force him forward with sticks
and curses, and the guns drive him back with cries of "Tally-ho!"
But the fox's appearance is disconcerting; and there is a touch of
irony in the thought that a crafty old fox, who in his time has slain
more than his share of pheasants, should yet be in at the death of
those that escaped him.
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