THE FOX 115 



the slightest appearance of a fox having been 

 there. The hounds were then trotted off to the 

 next wood, about a mile, shortly found, and after 

 a good run killed their fox. The brush was given 

 to the farmer, who went home well satisfied that 

 this was the right fox, and told his shepherd of it, 

 who was equally pleased. A few days afterwards 

 the farmer came again, and said, that having lost 

 some more lambs since the hounds were there, 

 his shepherd, unknown to him, had set a trap for 

 the fox, and in it next morning was found, not 

 a fox, but his master's favourite pointer, which 

 he at once destroyed, and never lost another lamb. 

 The likely part of a cover to find a fox in is 

 where it is low enough to admit the rays of the 

 sun to reach him in his kennel during some part 

 of the day if possible, to which he returns as soon 

 as daylight appears, and is seldom seen after dusk 

 in the morning, unless he is disturbed or in quest 

 of a vixen in the month of February ; but cubs are 

 apt to move in the daytime when they are nearly 

 half-grown, until they have been hunted or 

 frightened. Foxes, in some countries where there 

 are forests with old trees, or pollards covered 

 with ivy, are often known to be foiuid lying in 

 them, having made their kennel a considerable 

 height from the ground, in proof of which the 

 following fact happened to the writer, when he 



