lO FOXES AT HOME. 



look in your direction, especially if alarmed, the 

 latter form with the snout the letter V, those of 

 a dog more like a W. 



There are occasions when at a distance or 

 moving quickly it is most diflficult if not 

 impossible to tell for certain. I remember a 

 first whipper-in of many years' standing, and 

 who, by the way, is now a huntsman, viewing a 

 fox to ground almost under his horse's feet, 

 and when the hounds arrived he told the hunts- 

 man that it was "a great large dog fox." 

 Spades were obtained, and digging went on for 

 an hour or two, only to find on getting to the 

 end of the hole that the '' fine dog fox " was a 

 lanky "wet vixen" (i.^., vixen with cubs laid 

 down). On another occasion a sporting parson, 

 who also knows a fox when he sees one, stated 

 that the hunted fox which passed close by him 

 was a " wet vixen." " She was so close that I 

 could see her dugs," he said to me in a hoarse 

 whisper. This I thought a difficult thing to do, 

 if not quite impossible ; however, he was a 

 parson, and had to be believed. Shortly after- 

 wards the hounds, despite every attempt to stop 

 them, killed this wet vixen, which turned out to be 

 " a fine dog fox " ! But the mistake is excusable. 



