THE HUNTED FOX AND HIS WILES 157 



gorse covert or passes through bracken or long, dry 

 grass, cleans the marks of travel very quickly from 

 his sides, legs, and brush ; and, if he pass across a 

 ride close to your horse, allowing you but a glimpse 

 of his back as he steals through the grass, it is not 

 so easy to decide if he has been travelling or not. 



A hunted fox moves with drooping brush, we know ; 

 but I never see foxes, fresh or beaten, crossing covert- 

 rides with raised brush. At that time the animal, 

 knowing he is liable to be seen, makes as little 

 display as possible. 



When a fox, after pursuit, lies up in a patch of 

 gorse, and bolts from it when hounds close with him, 

 he goes away with a rush, makes a last bid for life, 

 and the effort carries him so fast that this, combined 

 with his comparatively clean appearance, causes him 

 sometimes to be mistaken for a fresh fox. 



Get a good look at him, though, from a little 

 distance, and if he is in the open the stilty, high- 

 on-the-leg appearance of the run fox cannot be 

 mistaken, and, once seen, will not be forgotten. Last 

 week I saw a fox run very smartly for four or 

 five miles to a large gorse covert on the slope of 

 a heathery hill; above the gorse on top of the hill 

 is a sort of kopje with rocks and boulders strewn 

 about, and from this coign of vantage I had a splendid 

 view of the covert below. I viewed three foxes there, 

 but there was an open space in the gorse on which 

 the snow still was lying, and this the foxes crossed 

 like the figures on the slides of a magic lantern. 

 There was no mistaking the hunted one — he looked 

 absurdly higher than the others ; and his waist was 



