222 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



had known the harriers sometimes kill two dozen 

 a day. 



Plenty of rabbits still remained in places. The 

 foxes' earths were in their burrows or sometimes 

 under a hollow tree, and when the word was sent 

 round the shepherds stopped them for the hunt very 

 early in the morning. Foxes used to be almost thick. 

 He had seen as many as six (doubtless the vixen and 

 cubs) sunning themselves on the cliffs at Beachy 

 Head, lying on ledges before their inaccessible breed- 

 ing places, in the face of the chalk. 



At present he did not think there were more than 

 two there. They ascended and descended the cliff 

 with ease, though not, of course, the straight wall or 

 precipice. He had known them fall over and be 

 dashed to pieces, as when fighting on the edge, or in 

 winter by the snow giving way under them. As the 

 snow came drifting along the summit of the Down it 

 gradually formed a projecting eave or cornice, project- 

 ing the length of the arm, and frozen. 



Something like this may occasionally be seen on 

 houses when the partially melted snow has frozen 

 again before it could quite slide off. Walking on this 

 at night, when the whole ground was white with snow, 

 and no part could be distinguished, the weight of the 

 fox as he passed a weak place caused it to give way, 

 and he could not save himself. Last winter he had 

 had two lambs, each a month old, killed by a fox 

 which ate the heads and left the bodies ; the fox 

 always eating the head first, severing it, whether of a 

 hare, rabbit, duck, or the tender lamb, and " cover- 

 ing" digging a hole and burying that which he 



