106 



MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



careers through the unfettered air. Both are lovers of unshackled 

 liberty, and it is in their own-chosen haunts, watching them 

 frolicking in the Spring, that one sees them at their best. 



i ' / / 

 FIG. 45. HEAD OK HARE. 



I have been fortunate with my stalking expeditions after the 

 sagacious Fox, and have watched it for hours during the day- 

 time when the crafty beast has come above ground to make 

 overtures to a vixen. One red-letter day will always remain 

 with me, for I had the good fortune to watch, at fairly close 

 quarters, a dog and vixen playing together after the manner 

 of kittens ! The reason for this delightful episode in broad 

 daylight has puzzled me ever since it happened, and I never 

 pass the haunt without vividly recalling the scene in all its 

 details. 



At other times, Foxes have dashed past me as I have stood 

 watching for birds, or admiring the coy Primrose in a belt of 

 favourite woodland, and I am so given to quiet observation, 

 as a result of constant habit, that I have never " tally-hoed," 

 as, being somewhat of a sporting person, I really should have 

 done on such an occasion. 



Of the craftiness and sagacity of the Fox much might be 



