CHAPTER TWENTY SANDHILLS 



occasional reconnoitre of the feeding hares. When the sun 

 began to rise, they came one by one from the field to the 

 cover of the plantation; three had already come in without 

 passing by his ambush, one of them came within twenty 

 yards of him, but he made no movement beyond crouching 

 still more flatly to the ground — presently two came directly 

 towards him; though he did not venture to look up, I saw 

 by an involuntarymotion of his ears, that those quickorgans 

 had already warned him of their approach; the two hares 

 came through the gap together, and the fox springing with 

 the quicknessof lightning caughtone and killed her immed- 

 iately; he then lifted up hisbootyand wascarrying it offlike 

 a retriever, when my rifle-ball stopped his course by passing 

 through his backbone, and I went up and despatched him. 

 After seeing this 1 never wondered again as to how a fox 

 couldmake prey of animals much quicker than himself, and 

 apparently quite as cunning. 



One day this winter, we attempted to beat the thickets 

 and rough ground in the sandhilldistrict for foxes. Having 

 appointed a place of meeting, I went with a friend and four 

 couple of beagles well entered to fox and roe, to meet the 

 ownerofpartofthegroundand an adjoining proprietor. We 

 wereonly four guns. Havingplacedtheotherthreein passes 

 along the edge of the swamps, through which the roe and 

 foxes would have to make their way on going from one wood 

 to the other, I went into the thickets with the keepers and 

 hounds. We had hardly entered when up got a fine buck, 

 and the beagles were immediately laid on, and away they 

 went; I ran to a small height from which I had a good view 

 of the country — away went the buck at a rattling pace, and 

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