THE HUNTED FOX 117 



hounds should run into their fox fairly than that he 

 should be mobbed by the men. The most perfect 

 huntsman at the finish of a long run is the present 

 Duke of Beaufort, and he probably loses fewer foxes 

 than anyone else. If a fox be not quite so done as we 

 think he is, he may very likely escape, since, as we have 

 seen, at such times he appears to lose his natural 

 odour altogether. No doubt these modifications of 

 the scent-bearing power of the fox are of advantage 

 to the race. That the weaker individuals should give 

 a fainter odour, the younger foxes should be more 

 difficult to hunt, and that the scent of a thoroughly 

 frightened fox or a weary one should fade altogether, 

 must, in the case of an animal always throughout its 

 history an object of pursuit, be a great advantage. 



I think, too, we are entitled to draw certain con- 

 clusions from these facts as to the feelings of the 

 hunted fox, and we may infer that until the scent 

 fails the fox feels no fear. We have many instances 

 to show that this is so of foxes ; for example, while 

 they are being hunted actually killing and carrying off 

 fowls and ducks. Once in the Old Berkshire country 

 a fox grabbed at a fowl when hounds were running him 

 and disappeared with it into an earth. Indeed, when 

 we come to think of it, if an animal like the fox, which 

 has many enemies and is constantly an object of 



