20 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



leveret is generally fairly well grown, and, judging 

 from its cries, this one must have been of a good 

 size. The sides of the surrounding hills were 

 teeming with rabbits, and so it may be inferred 

 that foxes evidently prefer to sup on leverets. 

 This very fox, doubtless, had his home in one 

 of the many adjacent gorse-coverts, but was 

 unable to resist the temptation of poaching off 

 his own manor. 



I believe it to be a well-acknowledged fact that 

 foxes and dogs at times cross breed with each 

 other. It is stated that the advances in such 

 cases emanate from the vixen, not from the dog, 

 the former coming down into the neighbourhood 

 of the villages. The result of such an inter- 

 mixture is generally known as a cocktailed fox, 

 from the peculiar way such hybrids carry their 

 brushes. 



For some years past English hares have been 

 gradually decreasing in numbers. This is doubt- 

 less due, in a great measure, to the Ground 

 Game Act. I was recently informed that, on a 

 manor on the Berkshire hills, formerly the annual 

 scene of one of our principal coursing meetings, 

 and where in those days the hares were so plenti- 

 ful as to necessitate the thinning of the ground 

 previous to the day's sport, the present supply is 

 insufficient for a coursing meeting at all. I shall 

 never forget the number of hares which had 



o 



collected in one turnip-field, after the neighbour- 

 ing downland had been cleared one morning. I 



