62 FOXES AT HOME. 



deserted, although they kennel in the bracken 

 and thick cover, close to some secure place in 

 case of alarm You can then only detect their 

 whereabouts by watching at night or early 

 morning, or by finding their " playground," some 

 little bank or ride, which they wear quite bare by 

 their nightly or, more correctly speaking, early- 

 morning gambols. At night they are more bent 

 on food, but in the grey of the morning they 

 always have a lark together before turning in 

 for the day. 



It is quite common to have rabbits and cubs 

 in the same earth, especially if it is a large one, 

 but I have also seen them in a single hole, 

 which evidently had branches inside, where the 

 rabbits could rest in security without the vixen 

 interferino: with them. Both seem to live in 

 harmony till the cubs begin to get about the 

 earth, when the rabbits have to clear out. When 

 watching to see the vixen come out of an earth 

 in hopes of getting a glimpse of the cubs, I have 

 frequently seen rabbits come out first and go 

 clean away, and later on the vixen emerge and 

 do likewise. 



I remember once seeing a vixen (in the middle 

 of the day, too) sitting on a large rabbit burrow 



