124 Random Rkcoi.lkctions of the 



intervals. Each of tliese menus seemed to 

 be equally relished, and scarcely anything 

 remained of the meal the next day. So many 

 instances of the natural cunning of foxes have 

 been adduced that there seems to be hardly 

 any device they won^t resort to at a pinch. 

 One of the most artful that fell to my notice 

 happened some years ago, when a crippled fox 

 took up his abode on my land. He, or she, had 

 by some means lost part of a foreleg, by what 

 means I could not tell, but suspected the trap. 

 All that remained of the limb was a short 

 stump, and when suddenly roused the fox 

 would go off with a bad limp, so much so that 

 some Irishmen who worked on the farm, and 

 were familar with the cripple, would utter a 

 Donnybrook yell and give chase, and there did 

 not seem to be much difference in speed 

 between pursuers and pursued till Pat had 

 nearly got up, when the '' hipocrite," as they 

 called him, would put on steam and leave 

 them in the lurch. But one day as I was 

 quietly walking round my farm I disturbed a 

 fox in a stubble field, who, after turning round 

 to stare at me, went through a fence, and 

 running forty or fifty yards across a piece of 

 fallows, suddenly stopped and roused up 



