48 



MAMMALS. 



with darker bands, and having black rings on the tail and 

 a black line along the back. The soles of the feet are 

 black. 



2. THE Fox. 



In the Fox we have a beast of peculiar interest, which is 



chiefly due to the fact that the amusement afforded by its 



pursuit has invested it in this country with an altogether 



disproportionate importance, in consequence of which it is 



strictly protected at the expense of the farmer 



Protection. ^^ game - preserver, whose birds it destroys 



wholesale. But for this artificial protection, there is every 



reason to suppose that it would have followed the wild 

 cat, and survive only in the waste mountains of North 

 Britain. 



As its pace and endurance endear it to the hunting-man, 

 so does the naturalist find much to interest him in its 

 sagacity. It is not easy, indeed, to be quite sure where 

 this sagacity stops short; in literature, at 

 any rate, it goes great lengths, and the fox 

 is represented in the folk-lore of all nations as invariably 

 getting the better of other creatures, both weaker and 

 stronger than itself. Among the many dodges by which 



Sagacity. 



