THE HUNTED CUB 



high ground near the wood while hounds hunted 

 their stag into the valley below. Within ten 

 minutes, I viewed three of the cubs back into the 

 plantation, and no doubt the other two were not 

 long behind them. 



With old adult foxes, the same thing is likely 

 to happen. A fox slips away and hounds run 

 hard for perhaps twenty minutes, then comes a 

 check, and the line cannot be recovered. The 

 Master gives the order to draw somewhere else, 

 and a fresh fox is found. Had hounds been 

 taken back to the covert in which the original 

 fox was lying, in all probability they would have 

 got on to him again. Having shaken off his 

 pursuers, a hunted fox frequently returns at once 

 to his home covert. 



The cub which survives his first hunting season 

 may develop into a very clever fox if he keeps 

 his wits about him. His initial experience with 

 hounds has taught him that it is better to at once 

 get " out of that " than stay, and as his mind is 

 constantly sharpened by pitting his wits against 

 those of his enemies and the creatures which he 

 himself hunts, he becomes in time one of those 

 "old customers" which so often escape, and 

 which in the end manage not to be hunted at all. 

 The least suspicious scent or sound puts such a 

 fox on the alert, and he is away at once, long 

 before hounds are in covert or anyone can get 

 a view of him. When he grows old, and his 

 powers begin to fail, his wits remain as sharp as 

 ever ; and no doubt his long and varied experience 

 of life enables him to keep fat and well liking, 

 even though he has hardly a sound tooth left in 

 his head. Now and then hounds account for 

 one of these " old customers," and it is surprising 

 in what good condition most of them are. 



55 



