i8o ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



well-grown rat. There were also many gnawed 

 bones of kinds not easily identified, all proving 

 that this particular family had fared sumptuously. 

 While we examined the antechamber of the den, 

 three terriers were whining and barking eagerly in 

 its recesses, but their efforts to reach the cubs 

 were a failure. 



In these circumstances it is the practice of the 

 keepers to remain at the den till the gloaming in 

 order to keep the parent foxes out, then to hide 

 themselves in its imme'diate vicinity in order to 

 get a shot at the animals as they try to enter 

 at dusk. The watch has often to be maintained 

 for two or three nights, but it is generally success- 

 ful in the end, for when the young begin to cry 

 out, as they will do after a day of hunger, the 

 mother will brave much to get to them. There is 

 something repugnant to ordinary human feeling 

 in this taking advantage of the fox's best instinct 

 for its undoing, but such a consideration presented 

 to a gamekeeper stirs him only to an amused 

 laugh. Occasionaly he is able to trap a fox, but 

 it is by using its parental instincts that he is alone 

 able to keep the tribe within bounds. 



In some of the deer forests little effort is made 

 to keep down the foxes. Indeed, there are cases 

 in which the sentiment in favour of wild life has 

 gone so far that every kind of wild animal and bird 

 is tolerated ; and one Highland landlord is quoted 

 as saying that the " only vermin he objected to 

 were sheep." The harm done by predatory beasts 

 and birds in a deer forest is, of course, exceed- 

 ingly small when stalking is the sole interest, and 



