Xll INTRODUCTION. 



The bear and the wolf have long since 

 disappeared. These, however, we do not regret ! 

 The marten cat and the polecat, the badger 

 and the otter, unless where the latter is strictly 

 preserved for hunting purposes, are in many 

 places very rare indeed, and the two former 

 almost extinct, and were it not that the fox, 

 the subject of these pages, happens, at present, 

 to be the petted animal which provides for rich 

 and poor the sport of kings, healthy exercise, 

 and employment for thousands, and puts more 

 money in circulation, directly or indirectly, than 

 all the other wild animals in the world put 

 together, he too — for, alas ! he has many 

 enemies — would, in our islands, soon become 

 a thing of the past, with nothing to remind 

 future generations of the bygone glories, 

 delights, and excitements of the chase, save 

 a few antiquated volumes in our libraries, or 

 perhaps a dusty and moth-eaten mask or brush 

 hanging in the ancestral hall ! 



