THE EDUCATION OF THE FOX 37 



tion has brought slavery and suffering to man and 

 dog alike. But the little fox three or four fields away, 

 striding along in the full joy of his life free from the 

 sounds of pursuit, has made a great step in his educa- 

 tion. It is safer to fly than to stay, and when he 

 returns, as he certainly will that night or the next 

 day, to the covert he was born and bred in, the lesson 

 will be enforced by the traces of dog and man, and 

 perhaps by the taint of blood about the place. Nor 



% 



will he forget it. If it is a large woodland our fox 

 shifts his quarters ; if a small one he very likely leaves 

 altogether for some less haunted spot. Thus the 

 litter is scattered, and the young foxes are thrown on 

 their own resources and adopt, until the next spring, a 

 solitary life. Each hunts and kills for itself. Each 

 has its own lair where it sleeps, though it always keeps 

 the main earth where it was born in its memory 

 as a possible refuge. 



Although foxes return to their earths when pressed, 

 I am inclined to think that few of them till after their 

 first breeding-season have any regular underground 

 habitation, going to ground in drains and rabbit-holes 

 when necessary as occasion offers. Henceforward 

 the fox, having escaped by flight, will most likely 

 follow the methods of escape which he has found 

 successful hitherto. In the same way, possibly, 



