CUBDOM. 47 



humour or condition to hunt I I have known 

 the dog fox bring up and bury close to the 

 mouth of the earth two young rabbits after the 

 keeper had " put to " in the morning and 

 stopped the vixen in, as the hounds were 

 coming to draw the ground. He showed me 

 the rabbits during the day and stated they were 

 not there w^hen he '' put to " in the morning ; in 

 fact, one rabbit was within a few inches of the 

 stopping. When the hounds left he removed 

 the stopping, and on listening at the hole we 

 could hear the cubs whining inside, evidently 

 only just born. I remained till dusk, when I 

 saw the vixen come to the mouth of the hole, 

 look round, and then go back again, and, though 

 1 remained until it was quite dark, she did not 

 appear again. In the morning both rabbits 

 were gone. 



The vixen, as a rule, remains in the earth 

 with the cubs during the daytime until they are 

 about three weeks or a month old, and she does 

 not come out until very late in the evening, 

 when it is almost too dark to witness her 

 departure. A dark shadow appears at the 

 mouth of the earth and immediately vanishes, 

 as she goes straight away without a moment's 



