FOXES. 145 



seemed to have formed his plans, examined the dif- 

 ferent gaps in the wall, fixed upon one which appeared 

 to be most frequented, and laid himself down close to 

 it in an attitude like that of a cat at a mouse hole. 

 In the meantime I watched all his plans. He then 

 with great care and silence scraped a small hollow in 

 the ground, throwing up the sand as a kind of screen. 

 Every now and then, however, he stopped to listen, and 

 sometimes to take a most cautious peep into the field. 

 When he had done this, he laid himself down in a con- 

 venient posture for springing on his prey, and remained 

 perfectly motionless, with the exception of an occasional 

 reconnoitre of the feeding hares. When the sun began 

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

 plantation : three had already come without passing 

 by his ambush, one within twenty yards of him ; but he 

 made no movement beyond crouching still more flatly 

 to the ground. Presently two came directly towards 

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

 by an involuntary motion of his ear, that those quick 

 organs had already warned him of their approach. The 

 two hares came through the gap together, and the fox, 

 springing with the quickness of lightning, caught one 

 and killed her immediately ; he then lifted up his booty 

 and was carrying it off, when my rifle-ball stopped his 

 course.' 



In Captain Brown's Popular Natural History I find 

 the following : ' In the autumn of the year 1819, at a 

 fox-chase in Galloway, a very strong fox was hard run 

 by the hounds. Finding himself in great danger of 

 being taken, Reynard made for a high wall at a short 

 distance, and springing over it, crept close under the 

 other side. The hounds followed, but no sooner Lad 

 K 



