112 THE FOX 



fox was a toddling animal, was certainly right, mean- 

 ing as he did that he must press his fox at some time 

 during the run if he was to kill him, or the fox 

 would run hounds out of scent. Whereas with the 

 old style of hounds they went hunting on, never 

 resting, never halting, seldom overrunning the line, 

 and steadily, pitilessly pursuing the fox to his death. 



There was nothing like the number of foxes that 

 there are nowadays, and thus the fox that was found 

 in the morning was killed later in the day. Now the 

 fox has every chance of putting off the burden of the 

 hunt on another. Though the danger to the in- 

 dividual fox was possibly greater, he was not so much 

 on the alert as he is when a smart, eager hunts- 

 man and a driving pack are on his line. If he is 

 hunted in this way for any length of time he receives 

 a sharp lesson. And this he does not forget. Next 

 time the fox does not dawdle, but, as Goosey says, 

 keeps on 'toddling,' putting a longer and longer 

 interval between himself and his pursuers as'chance 

 offers, so that it is perhaps commoner for hounds to 

 be run fairly out of scent nowadays than it was when 

 the fox just kept in front of a slower pack. 



The foxes of the present day have probably a 

 much more limited range than their ancestors. Since 

 there are many more of them, and as each dog fox 



