Fox Preservation The Fox in Pursuit. 523 



with marauding intent, until prepared for sleep, which it 

 mostly takes at this season during the night. When, as 

 the year progresses, cubs are produced, the fox has at 

 first to make great exertions in the day to supply a 

 sufficiency of food, and should the weather be either very 

 rough or very cold, he will find considerable difficulty in 

 obtaining it ; in such cases perhaps one, two, or even 

 three lambs will be abstracted from their folds and carried 

 off to the earth for the cubs, at intervals of three or four 

 days, but rarely in succession. 



At a later season, with an improvement in the weather, 

 the fox is no longer obliged to obtain the same amount 

 of food, and, as the days become longer and finer, the 

 rabbits, mostly young ones, come out more thickly morning 

 and night, and are more easily caught. As the summer 

 draws on the fox commences to have almost his own 

 way, and is never troubled as to means for subsistence, 

 food being in plenty, within his reach, and very easily 

 obtained right through the season until the warm days 

 of autumn draw on. As soon as frost becomes frequent, 

 he has again to bring his wits to bear in acquiring a 

 sufficiency, and when winter comes, and with it its accom- 

 panying cold and snow, sometimes he goes for some days 

 without a really " square " meal ; if this paucity of food 

 and difficulty in obtaining it continue, then Reynard makes 

 a swoop upon the poultry, with what result many know 

 too well. The distance a hungry fox will travel in quest 

 of food of its usual kind is sometimes very great, and we 

 have tracked their footsteps round and round and across 

 large fields, one after another, and still, to the best of 



