FOXES OF THE HILLS 



How many of the people of Scotland, urban or 

 rural, have seen a fox at large? The answer 

 to the question is like that to the interrogation 

 with which mythical Scots are supposed to grace 

 their toast, " Here's tae us ! Wha's like us? " 

 In the English hunting counties the fox is no 

 uncommon sight. Reynard is a brainy animal, and 

 he has learnt that in these fair fields only one kind 

 of danger threatens him, and that when there is 

 no " music of the hounds " he is safe. Over the 

 greater part of Scotland, on the contrary, the fox 

 knows that man and all his devices are to be 

 mistrusted, and he is constantly careful to keep 

 out of sight. Thus, one might spend months in a 

 hill country where foxes abound and never cast 

 eyes upon a member of the race ; and it is 

 probable that not one in a thousand of the tourists 

 who in the summer months explore the recesses of 

 the mountains ever sees a hair of the largest of the 

 surviving native carnivora of Britain. Only game- 

 keepers and shepherds, who wage constant war 

 on them, know how numerous foxes still are, and 

 even they obtain a sight of the animal by laborious 

 and studied means. 



Like the eagle, the Scottish fox in our time finds 



