THE FOX AND HIS NATURE 67 



they eat, and take them so gynnously (cunningly) 

 and with great malice and not by running. There 

 be some that hunt as a wolf 1 and some that go 

 nowhere but to villages to seek the prey for their 

 feeding. As I have said they are so cunning and 

 subtle that neither men nor hounds can find a 

 remedy to keep themselves from their false turns. 

 Also foxes commonly dwell in great hedges or in 

 great coverts or in burrows near some towns or 

 villages for to evermore harm hens and other 

 things as I have said. The foxes' skins be won- 

 derfully warm to make cuffs and furs, but they 

 stink evermore if they are not well tawed. The 

 grease of the fox and the marrow are good for 

 the hardening of sinews. Of the other manners 

 of the fox and of his cunning I will speak more 

 openly hereafter. Men take them with hounds, 

 with greyhounds, with hayes and with purse-nets, 

 but he cutteth them with his teeth, as the male 

 of the wolf doth but not so soon (quickly). 



1 According to G. de F., p. 74, it should not read that some 

 are hunted like wolves, but that they themselves hunt like 

 wolves. 



