192 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



and so carefully done, that an old vixen (I saw it 

 myself), and no doubt the old dog-fox also, would 

 follow the report of the gun in the cover-sides, 

 keeping at some distance in rear of the gunner, 

 and before he was out of sight pick up the rabbit 

 and draw back with it into cover. 



When the litter is large the foxes will pick up 

 anything they find dead that has not been handled 

 by man ; if touched by the human hand and tainted 

 by the supposed enemy, they suspect poison or a 

 trap, and will have nothing to do with it. 



One summer's evening, at Harrold, in Bed- 

 fordshire, I had a very long shot at a very crafty 

 old buzzard hawk (all biped buzzards are not 

 fools). The bird was perched on the topmost 

 dead limb of a tree, with the great, broad breast 

 to me. With time to take sure aim, and a 

 cartridge in my powerful gun, I felt sure the 

 hawk had a death blow, though I could not 

 detect the fall. The next day, on paying a 

 visit to the whereabout of the cubs, by some 

 fallen oak trees in the ride at the cover-side, 

 which was one of the playgrounds of the litter, 

 I found the wings of the buzzard hawk, brought 

 there, no doubt, by their industrious parents. On 



