COMMOK FOX. 187 



age of fourteen or fifteen years in a state of cap- 

 tivity. 



Ignoble as the Fox may be in point of strength 

 and courage, it is now almost the only predaceous 

 animal that remains with us to exercise the faculties 

 of our hunting gentry ; and, in the more populous 

 parts of the country, it could scarcely maintain its 

 existence, were ft not protected for this purpose. 



