FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



With the fox it is a case of the ' ' survival of the 

 fittest," for even with the protection that hunting 

 affords him and his kind, the fooHsh members of 

 the family are soon exterminated. 



The fox appears to secure most of his food by 

 stealth. I have no doubt a fox can catch a 

 rabbit in a straight run if he gets away close 

 behind it, but his usual method is to make a care- 

 ful stalk, and then pounce suddenly on his victim. 

 In the case of hares, he will sometimes lie in wait 

 for them, crouching beside a smoot in a hedge 

 or wall, which the hares use on their journeys to 

 and from their feeding grounds. Mr. Tom 

 Speedy quotes an instance of a fox chasing a 

 hare in daylight, but as both pursuer and pursued 

 disappeared from view, it was impossible to say 

 how the run ended. The fox is fond of young 

 rabbits, and when his keen nose leads him to a 

 nest of baby bunnies, he very soon unearths them. 



Although the fox has a wonderfully keen nose, 

 I think he seldom if ever springs at prey when 

 guided solely by scent. In a book* I read not long 

 ago, the author, with the help of diagrams, 

 attempts to show the doings of a fox as depicted 

 by the animal's tracks in the sand-hills. The 

 fox ends his stalk by making a blind-spring at 

 some partridges. I have read in the snow the 

 story of many a kill by foxes, but I have yet to 

 find evidence of a fox having trusted to his nose 

 alone when it came to the final spring. It is 

 always unsafe to dogmatise with regard to the 

 habits of wild creatures, but I imagine a fox 

 usually sees his prey before he makes his rush. 



In the Canadian woods, the rufied grouse have 

 a habit of working their way beneath the deep, 

 soft snow, to escape the intense cold of the winter 



* "Tracks and Tracking," by H. Mortimer Batten 



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