THE FELL FOX 45 



The fell fox is always in better training than 

 his relations in the low country, because he has, 

 as a rule, much further to go in search of food, and 

 his beat is a wide one. He is generally lean and 

 hard, though now and then one comes across a 

 fox carrying a certain amount of fat. A fox, like a 

 hare, or any other hunted animal for that matter, 

 if forced beyond the hmit of his beat, is more or less 

 nonplussed, and runs in an aimless manner. 

 I remember a run of this kind in the 1918-19 season, 

 when hounds kiUed a big dog-fox in the open. 

 During the latter part of the run, this fox took 

 refuge in a shed adjoining a house. Leaving this 

 unsafe retreat, he travelled on, and, after passing a 

 number of places where he could easily have got 

 to ground, eventually lay down on the fell side. 

 As hounds drew near he jumped up, and they never 

 broke view till they rolled him over, stiff as a 

 poker. It was plain to see he was in country 

 strange to him, but the first part of the run had 

 been very fast, and hounds had forced him down- 

 hill off his own range of mountains, and so to his 

 eventual undoing. 



During the war foxes increased on the f eUs, and, 

 at any rate in the Windermere district, some of 

 them have been found lying at a lower altitude 

 than usual. Also the Windermere Harriers have 

 not been hunting this season, 1919-20, so that 

 foxes from the hills may have taken advantage 



