138 THE FOX IN SUMMER 



most likely provide a brace of bunnies — and what 

 sportsman will grudge them ? — a rook or two, or a 

 wood pigeon, and so save the farmer his fowls and 

 the master his silver. Now also is the short-lived 

 season for the rook rifle, and the tender "branchers" 

 are wonderfully relished by the fox ; but most of all 

 does he delight in a succulent water-hen. 



Last winter, in the snow-time, I sallied forth when 

 daylight permitted, and from the covert fence I 

 tracked a fox's wanderings for many a mile. He 

 led me to every pond in the parish, and as every 

 piece of water was frozen over I wondered not a little 

 at first. However, the tracks of water-hens soon re- 

 vealed the object of his quest, and at last I came to 

 a pond where there had been a rush and a capture 

 on the ice, as testified by the marks of the struggle 

 and drops of blood on the snow. 



Satisfied with his bag, the fox had then returned 

 home well pleased, for I pricked him back to the 

 covert and marked the depression in the snow caused 

 by the bird he was carrying. And on his homeward 

 journey he must have worn his brush in a jaunty 

 fashion, for I never saw the mark of it in the snow, 

 though I frequently noted he had been trailing it on 

 his outward prowl. But it is not the " gorse-covert 

 fox" who is the real desperado, the robber of the 

 finest turkeys, the slaughterer of hecatombs of geese. 

 The great culprit is the outlyer, the solitary brigand 

 whose lair is on some straggling double fence, gorse- 

 covered bank, or small, sequestered brake too insigni- 

 ficant to be regularly drawn. This retreat when dis- 

 covered will generally disclose the desperate character 



