24! SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



of coquetting before they are handled. We have 

 watched night by night, and year by year, for 

 many years, the habits and practices of foxes and 

 their cubs, and we have been much amused by the 

 apparent nonchalmice of an old vixen when passing 

 through a rabbit warren, as if she did not entertain 

 the most remote idea of doing violence to their 

 feelings. The old rabbits stamped upon the ground, 

 as a warning signal to the juveniles, which, seeming 

 to understand the meaning of the notice, sat erect 

 upon their hind-legs, watching the approach of the 

 enemy. The old vixen, knowing the hopelessness 

 of the pursuit under such circumstances, with bur- 

 rows close at hand into which the whole colony of 

 conies might disappear in a moment, strolled leisurely 

 through the host, without even a bow or nod of her 

 head, until she saw a couple of silly young rabbits, 

 which had gone rather too far from home, scam- 

 pering away into a thorn-bush for protection. " I 

 have them/' muttered the old crafty one, and rush- 

 ing down directly to the bush with a short bark, 

 the rabbits were so frightened at the onslaught that 

 they fled from their shelter out on the opposite side, 

 still farther from their burrows, and Mrs. Charley 

 Fox snapp'ed one up in a trice, giving him a pinch 

 in the ribs with her incisors, which left him helpless 

 on the ground ; in a second she dashed round the 

 bush again and tripped up the heels of the other 

 delinquent, ere he had gone half way up the hill 

 towards his burrow. We shall perhaps have an 

 opportunity at a future time to write somewhat 

 more about foxes and their habits, but now we 



