68 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. V. 



no doubt become proportionally cunning. To keep 

 himself in the fine and sleek condition in which 

 a fox always is, many a trick and ruse de guerre 

 of surpassing cleverness must be practised. The 

 stories of their manoeuvres to catch animals are 

 endless ; and, though many of them would be 

 amusing enough, I do not like quoting as facts 

 incidents of this kind, the authenticity of which I 

 cannot vouch for, however much I may believe 

 them to be true, and I must confess to being very 

 credulous on this point. I have been assured by a 

 person, not given at all to exaggerate nor easily 

 deceived, that he once witnessed the following 

 trick : Very early one morning he saw a fox eyeing 

 most wistfully a number of wild-ducks feeding in 

 the rushy end of a Highland lake. After due con- 

 sideration, the fox, going to windward of the ducks, 

 put afloat in the loch several bunches of dead rushes 

 or grass, which floated down amongst the ducks 

 without causing the least alarm. After watching 

 the effects of his preliminary fleet for a short time, 

 the fox, taking a good-sized mouthful of grass in his 

 jaws, launched himself into the water as quietly as 

 possible, having nothing but the tips of his ears and 

 nose above water. In this way he drifted down 

 amongst the ducks, and made booty of a fine mal- 

 lard. Though this story seems extraordinary, it 



