30 FOX HUNTING. 



THE CUNNING OF THE FOX. 



Every man of the club knew the habits of 

 the fox by experience, and after one or two runs 

 of the same fox he knew what that fox was Hkely 

 to do in his run. It may be well to say here that 

 the red fox of that day was full of cunning, and 

 while a few were holed in a short run, the old 

 foxes generally seemed fond of being hunted, and 

 when the scent was not strong enough to enable 

 the hounds to run with heads up, or as was called 

 "breast high," and they had to hunt it closely on 

 the ground, the fox, after getting well ahead, 

 would stop, sit down, listen to the cry of the 

 hounds, and roll on his back in apparent glee, 

 allowing the hounds to come within a short dis- 

 tance of him before starting again on his run. If 

 the hounds were running him too hard, then he 

 had various tricks of cunning to throw them oflf 

 his scent; sometimes doubling on his tracks, that 

 is, turning back over the same ground he had 

 been running from the hounds, and then leap far 

 from it so as to break the scent, which naturally 

 made the eager hounds overrun and lose the 

 track; then there must be a cast back to find it 

 again. Old hounds generally circled, as the 

 quickest and surest way to find where the fox 

 had gone, while young hounds were apt to run 



