ARTIFICES OF ANIMALS. 231 



craftiness and address. Acute and circumspect, sagacious 

 and prudent, he diversifies his conduct, and always reserves 

 some art for unforeseen accidents. Though nimbler than the 

 wolf, he trusts not entirely to the swiftness of his course. He 

 knows how to ensure safety, by providing himself with an 

 asylum, to which he retires when danger appears. He is not 

 a vagabond, but lives in a settled habitation, and in a domes- 

 tic state. The choice of situation, the art of making and 

 rendering a house commodious, and of concealing the avenues 

 which lead to it, imply a superior degree of sentiment and 

 reflection. The fox possesses these qualities, and employs 

 them with dexterity and advantage. He takes up his abode 

 on the border of a wood, and in the neighborhood of cot- 

 tages. Here he listens to the crowing of the cocks and the 

 noise of the poultry. He scents them at a distance. He 

 chooses his time with great judgment and discretion. He 

 conceals both his route and his design. He moves forward 

 with caution, sometimes even trailing his body, and seldom 

 makes a fruitless expedition. When he leaps the wall, or gets 

 in underneath it, he ravages the court-yard, puts all the fowls 

 to death, and then retires quietly with his prey, which he 

 either conceals under the herbage, or carries off to his kennel. 

 In a short time he returns for another, which he carries off in 

 the same manner, but to a different place. In this manner 

 he proceeds, till the light of the sun, or some movements 

 perceived in the house, admonish him that it is time to retire 

 to his den. He does much mischief to the bird-catchers 

 Early in the morning he visits their nets and their birdlime, 

 and carries off successively all the birds that happen to be 

 entangled. The young hares he hunts in the plains, seizes 

 old ones in their seats, digs out the rabbits in the warrens, 

 finds out the nests of partridges, quails, &c., seizes the mothers 

 on the eggs, and destroys a prodigious number of game. 

 Dogs of all kinds spontaneously hunt the fox. Though his 

 odor be strong, they often prefer him to the stag or the hare. 

 When pursued, he runs to his hole; and it is not uncommon 

 to send in terriers to detain him till the hunters remove the 

 earth above, and either kill or seize him alive. The most 

 certain method, however, of destroying a fox is to begin with 

 shutting up the hole, to station a man with a gun near the 

 entrance, and then to search about with the dogs. When 

 they fall in with him, he immediately makes for his hole. But, 

 when he comes up to it, he is met with a discharge from the 

 gun. If the shot misses him, he flies off full speed, takes a 



