40 THE FOX 



This and much else the hunted fox learns if 

 he survives, and many are his wiles. One common 

 and very effectual trick is to run up and down 

 the hedgerows. Hounds generally flash over the 

 line at each fence and the fox gains a little time. 

 The day is often far spent, the fox has been hard 

 run, and his scent grows fainter. Time is all on 

 his side. Hounds and men become a little unsteady 

 and excited, and at last the fox runs his pursuers 

 out of scent. 



The fox has been known to evade the hounds 

 in many ingenious ways : to swim off to a small 

 island and lie concealed in the rushes, to climb 

 a wall and hide in the ivy. Foxes are very often 

 found in trees. One fox took refuge in an old 

 magpie's nest, and probably escaped many times 

 until, the ruse being discovered, he was turned out 

 and killed. In the Duke of Beaufort's country, 

 where many of the fields are divided by walls, foxes 

 have often been known to run along the top of 

 the walls. Still more ingenious was the fox who 

 found a hole in a rock under an ornamental cascade 

 in some pleasure-grounds where he hid, and was, 

 of course, always lost in mysterious fashion, until 

 at last a gardener discovered the place and it was 

 stopped; but the fox escaped. In the end hounds 



