350 Practical Game Preserving. 



thrown over its neck and shoulders, but more frequently 

 indeed, nearly always in much the same style as a dog, 

 namely, seized across the middle and conveyed belly upper- 

 most. In every case, however, Reynard, when thus pro- 

 vided, bears his burden with consummate ease and freeness, 

 and even if pursued will rarely be inconvenienced so 

 as to drop his capture. The quantity of rabbits, &c., 

 which a fox will manage to lay hold of, and retain in 

 its mouth, is rather surprising. We have seen one trotting 

 about, in a very conceited manner apparently, with three 

 full-grown rabbits securely held between its teeth, and 

 then attempt, and actually succeed in, picking up a fourth, 

 with which number it proceeded to decamp. 



As we have said, while the fox can obtain rabbits in 

 plenty, it rarely proves very destructive to game and 

 poultry, and although at all times ready to snap up any 

 pheasant, partridge, or hare which may be at all open to 

 capture, still it does not systematically hunt for and obtain 

 game in the same persistent and wanton manner in which 

 it pursues the ''frugal coney/' whilst poultry it attacks 

 only when other sources fail. 



The fox captures the rabbit in a variety of ways, more 

 often probably by lying in wait than by headlong pursuit. 

 Having ascertained, by the aid of its wonderful acuteness 

 of scent, the presence of a rabbit in a burrow, it will 

 invariably, provided its appetite be not too sharp, take up 

 its position just above the hole from which the rabbit will 

 probably come out, and lying low to the ground with head 

 upon the surface between its fore paws, listen for any 

 movement of the unsuspecting inhabitant. As soon as 



