TAME FOXES. 



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and paintings as peering round a haystack at a 

 flock of geese on a common, ducks on a pond, 

 or perhaps over a bank at rabbits playing close 

 by ; they may do this, but I think it is more 

 fancy than fact. It is seldom one has the 

 chance of seeing a wild fox catch his prey, and 

 when I have been lucky enough to do so they 

 either rushed up at sight without the slightest 

 attempt at concealment, or pretended to trot 

 unconcernedly by, getting, in the case of 

 rabbits, between them and the covert or their 

 burrow, and then making a sudden spring when 

 within a few feet of ther victim, which they 

 seldom missed. The first method is that 

 usually adopted. 



I was always most anxious to ascertain 

 how it was that a fox, like a badger, could 

 locate with such certainty the actual position 

 of a nest of young rabbits, and be able to 

 burrow right down on top of them, often many 

 feet from the mouth of the hole. We have all 

 seen the small round hole, some two inches in 

 diameter, right over the nest through which the 

 young had been drawn and devoured. Some 

 thought the position was fixed by hearing, and 

 others by smell, but, having found some rabbit 



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