6 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



of a pit or hollow, unlike those of the hares, which 

 are oval, and on a hill-side. The crown of a pollard- 

 tree they like even better. The prettiest fox's bed 

 the writer has ever seen was under a dog-rose bush, 

 which grew on a little circle of sound ground in a 

 rushy marsh. Two foxes were curled up under 

 it, enjoying the winter sun ; and as all the rushes 

 and the rose bush were white with hoar-frost, the 

 momentary glimpse of the foxes in bed was as pretty 

 as it was unexpected. The poet Cowper's cat was 

 not alone in her taste for making a bed in such 

 odd places as watering-pots and open drawers. Cats 

 are the most obstinately capricious, in their fancies 

 about their beds, of any domestic creature. They 

 will follow a particular rug or shawl from room 

 to room, if it be removed, in order to sleep on 

 it, or insist on the use of one chair, until they 

 get their way, and then for some reason take 

 a fancy to another. The cleanliest of all animals, 

 anything newly washed or very fresh and bright, 

 strikes them as just the thing for a bed. A nicely- 

 aired newspaper lying on the floor or in a chair, or 

 linen fresh from the wash, is almost irresistible. Out- 

 door cats seek a warm as well as a tidy bed. The 

 writer was once much surprised, when passing through 

 Mr Thornycroft's shipbuilding yard at Chiswick, to see 

 a cat fast asleep, lying, it seemed, on a muddy path. 



