48 Game and Foxes. 



he should be on the alert. At first the birds are 

 very insecure on their perches and easily blown 

 down, and should the branch they are occupying 

 sway to and fro they soon get giddy and fall to 

 the ground. The wind is also capable of blowing 

 them clean out of the trees ; once this has 

 happened the bird does not attempt to get up 

 again, but remains on the ground, perhaps dazed 

 by the fall. Hence the necessity of a watch 

 being maintained during a rough night, even if 

 the pheasants do fly to roost. 



The fallacy that a fox is able to mesmerise a 

 pheasant on a tree and bring it to the ground is 

 a very foolish one, and yet it is widely believed. 

 The author has in daylight watched a fox gazing 

 at a pheasant which had seen him and flown 

 amongst the branches, but the bird did not lose 

 its head ; on the other hand, its loud cries were 

 a warning to every other within hearing, and 

 finally the fox moved off with a grapes-are-sour 

 kind of expression on his face. The statement 

 alluded to is about as possible as that advanced 

 in one of the comic papers, which caused some 

 amusement at the time. It was that a fox found a 

 pheasant on a tree, merely walked round in a circle, 

 and the bird in an attempt to follow the enemy's 

 movements with its gaze wrung its own neck. 



