FOX AND HOUND 



of these long runs to end with a kill. The fact 

 that six out of the eleven occurred in February 

 will be remarked. 



These are some of the strange places wherein 

 foxes have been killed or left:— On the house- 

 keeper's bed upstairs, Catas Farm, near Heather, 

 Leicestershire : late in October or early in November 

 1864 (clubbed while asleep by a waggoner). Kitchen 

 of a builder at Wetherby, Bramham Moor, killed 

 31st May 1875. In Mr. Fernie's country : took 

 refuge beside a ploughman and his team, November 

 1899. Killed in Broughton Astley Church, near 

 Leicester, while congregation assembling, Friday, 

 12th August 1900. Down farmhouse chimney from 

 the roof: fire raked out, and left by Essex and 

 Suffolk, 26th December 1903. Mineral water 

 factory : employes usurped function of hounds and 

 lost : Atherstone, March 1904. 



The height from which a fox can drop without 

 hurting himself is extraordinary. Foxes often seek 

 refuge in trees, ^ and if disturbed drop to ground 

 without hesitation. The greatest drop of which I 

 have record occurred on the 19th February 1886 

 in the Blackmore Vale country. The second 

 whipper-in ascended the slightly slanting elm up 

 which the fox, helped by ivy, had climbed. 

 The fox eventually went nearly to the top, and 



' This trait seems to be of modern development. I have found no mention 

 of tree-climbing foxes in the records of a century back. 



30 



