514 Remarks on the Habits 



be revived here and there, only to show the grossness of the 

 taste of our ancestors. Sixty head of red deer and fifteen of 

 roe had, by the joint exertions of many hundred peasants, 

 during a fortnight, been collected from an extensive woodland 

 district, and crammed into a sort of fold formed by a double 

 row of canvass and nets, about 14 ft. high. There they un- 

 derwent their sentence by being shot in passing near three 

 lodges erected in a straight line, passing through the middle 

 of the chamber (so the fenced space is called), in which they 

 were driven to and fro, till they were so tired and listless, 

 that the last twenty or thirty survivors laid their heads to- 

 gether not far from the lodges, and suffered themselves to be 

 killed without stirring. However, it was good sport to ob- 

 serve how four foxes, which happened to be in the chamber, 

 tried to sneak out of the sight of man in the open ground 

 over which they had repeatedly to pass with the deer. Com- 

 monly they contrived to get a stag between them and the 

 nearest lodge, and they generally kept as close as possible to 

 the canvass. Three of them had already met their fate, when 

 the fourth, observing that several bullets had passed through 

 the canvass where it was nearest to one of the side lodges, so 

 that a sort of irregular staircase had been formed, deliberately 

 stopt in the most exposed place, and, among a hail of bullets 

 made its escape over the canvass, by inserting its paws into 

 the holes. 



The most astonishing instance of the reasoning powers of 



the fox which has ever been brought before the public, is the 



one communicated in M. de Wildungen's Neujahrgeschenk 



fiLr 1796, the truth of which, the author says, was solemnly 



attested by a respectable sportsman on his deathbed. 



" The observer had posted himself, on an evening, for 

 shooting deer, when he saw an old fox jumping several times 

 up a high stump of a tree. After having practised in this 

 way, the animal ran away, and returned with a heavy dry oak 

 branch in its mouth, wherewith it went through the same 

 exercise as before, until it had acquired sufficient dexterity in 

 reaching the top of the stump with its burden : then it 

 dropped the branch, and crouched down on the stump. 

 When twilight came, a wild sow with five very young shoats 

 arrived, taking its accustomed path near the stump. Two of 

 the shoats were a little in the rear, and scarcely had they 

 reached the dangerous place where Reynard was lurking, when 

 he pounced upon one, and, in the twinkling of an eye, re- 

 gained his asylum with his prey. The squeaking of the shoat 

 caused the sow to make desperate efforts to uproot the 

 stump upon which the fox was comfortably feasting, and the 



