Ground Vermin Habits of the Fox. 353 



So far we have been alluding, of course, only to such 

 depredations as the fox may carry on during daylight ; its 

 mischievous work is, however, considerably favoured by 

 darkness, for both hares and rabbits addicted to feeding after 

 nightfall are more easily captured in the open or by the fox 

 manoeuvring until it is able to get between the coneys and 

 their burrows, or to approach the not very sharp-sighted 

 hares nearer than would be the case were it broad daylight. 

 Partridges, and such pheasants as may roost on the lower 

 branches of trees, grouse where they exist, and all birds 

 which choose their resting places on or near to the ground, 

 are especially liable to the attacks of the fox by night, 

 and the numbers of game birds and others thus destroyed 

 must be exceedingly large; and in localities where many 

 foxes exist, more especially those where they are preserved, 

 a sort of unofficial warfare is always in progress between 

 the owner of a game preserve, who also hunts, and his 

 gamekeeper. The latter finds fault with his master for 

 preserving foxes and pheasants in adjacent coverts, and the 

 master blames his keeper for not having sufficient birds to 

 show when The First comes round a veritable case of six 

 of one and half-a-dozen of the other. 



Reynard is also a source of great annoyance when 

 systematic small vermin and rabbit trapping is being 

 carried on. In the first instance, he is always stealing 

 the baits, without getting caught, for in the setting for a 

 stoat the " uncommon " is palpably evident to the marauding 

 fox, while in the latter case he filches the rabbits, mauls or 

 frightens them, and is often very troublesome to trappers, 

 gamekeepers, and the like. 



