24 FOXES AT HOME. 



instance of this occurs close to my house at the 

 present moment. 



There is a htter of cubs within 150 yards of 

 one of the gatekeepers' cottages on the Royal 

 Military College estate, and the vixen belonging 

 to it brings them their food from a distance ; the 

 appearance at the earth of an occasional orna- 

 mental water fowl from the College lake fixing 

 the direction she works in ; whilst another from 

 a litter right out on the heath purloins this 

 keeper's " Buff Orpingtons," and it takes some 

 time after she has made a successful raid to 

 remove their tell-tale feathers from the vicinity 

 of her earth, where they are easily discernible, 

 and I fear there will be none left for the other 

 vixen's cubs to practise on by the time they are 

 old enough to hunt ! 



It is very interesting to watch the different 

 effect which the approach of a fox has upon the 

 ordinary rabbit, in the evening, or in the early 

 morning. In the evening (unless it happens 

 that a vixen has been working the ground, and 

 picking up everything she can get hold of, at any 

 time, for her cubs, which makes the rabbits 

 rather wild) they take little or no notice, some 

 sit up and stamp with their feet, or crouch 



