FOXES I^OXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



bush, you will find where reynard has " left his 

 card," and all other foxes which chance to pass 

 that way will do the same. Their noses tell 

 them who has gone before, for to a fox his nose 

 is the same as speech and writing are to us. 



In an ordinary way, foxes are not very liable 

 to accident, but where snares are set for rabbits 

 a fox occasionally gets caught. He pulls the 

 snare-peg up, or breaks the string, and goes 

 away with the wire embedded in the flesh. The 

 copper tends to induce gangrene, and the accident 

 generally means the loss of a foot. If found by 

 hounds, a " three legger " has little chance of 

 escape. As a rule he is mighty chary of traps, 

 especially if he has been once nipped. Some- 

 times he may take refuge in a drain, and if the 

 latter is narrow, he may not be able to back out, 

 especially if another fox or foxes come in behind 

 him. In case of a sudden flood, he may quite 

 likely be drowned in his underground retreat. 

 The most curious accident to a fox, that I ever 

 heard of, occurred in a certain I^akeland planta- 

 tion. A fox was found with his neck fast be- 

 tween two saplings growing close together, and 

 he was quite dead. How it happened, one can 

 only guess. Possibly he had attempted to jump 

 through the narrow space, and had slipped down 

 between ; or perhaps he had sprung at something 

 and jammed his head through the opening. 



When you can't ride, owing to deep snow, it is 

 a good plan to take hounds into the big wood- 

 lands, and stir the foxes up a bit, on foot. Big 

 woods seldom get sufficiently hunted, and foxes, 

 finding them quiet, are inclined to congregate in 

 them. Anyway it exercises hounds, and they 

 like it much better than monotonous road work. 



On the fells it is bad travelling in snow, and I 



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