THE FOX 95 



For perfect beauty, combined with intelligence, 

 the fox, in my opinion, is without a rival in all 

 the wide world of wild animals. Some people 

 say that its abilities are much overrated, but 

 though not crediting it with superhuman under- 

 standing to this I cannot agree. A fox nearly 

 always keeps its wits about it, and seldom loses 

 its head. Watch as I have done, my presence 

 unsuspected, an old dog-fox disturbed by the sound 

 of hounds in the distance, slipping quietly away 

 from the covert where he has lain since daybreak, 

 and it is obvious that he has a good idea of the 

 danger that threatens. The sound of the horn 

 has floated down the breeze to rouse him from 

 slumber, from that light sleep which is always of 

 the " one eye open " description, and he is now 

 fully on the alert. He slips through the covert 

 fence, pauses, and looks back, listening for any 

 sounds which may tell what the hounds are doing. 

 The light glances on the golden-brown of his coat, 

 on his pricked ears, on his slender muzzle traced 

 with black, on his white chest, and on his neat 

 paws also finished with black those long, narrow, 

 dainty pads, that are capable of bearing him many 

 a mile over hill and dale, and which are such a 

 contrast in shape and make to the so-called " cat 

 feet " of his foes. 1 The sunlight shows too his 

 graceful, slender, yet powerful outline against the 

 dark green of a gorse bush, and the dull yellow 

 of some withered grass ; it seems to strike fire from 



1 The fashionable English foxhound has such an extremely 

 short, rounded foot that to a naturalist it appears almost deformed. 



