112 Gallic and Foxes. 



instance, taking pheasant nests and leaving those 

 of partridges alone. Others are keen at finding 

 leverets, while some are riverside hunters, which 

 subsist largely on water-hens, water-rats, and like 

 delicacies. Foxes certainly entertain different 

 ideas of what is good. 



French, or red-legged, partridges are more 

 reliable breeders than the native variety in a 

 hunting country, which fact is principally attribut- 

 able to their habit of nesting on pollard trees, 

 ricks, and in other positions not easy of access to 

 Reynard. There the broods are hatched safe 

 from his interference. However, there is a time 

 when the fox plays havoc with the red -legs ; on a 

 heavy soil the surface is often sticky during 

 winter, and the French partridges, having a 

 preference for using their legs, become encum- 

 bered with soil attached thereto, and can neither 

 run nor fly. Then Reynard takes heavy toll of 

 their numbers. 



Few readers may know that foxes are exceed- 

 ingly fond of ripe wild fruits (as any one may 

 see who takes the trouble to examine their excreta 

 during the autumn), such as raspberries, black- 

 berries, &c. It is not suggested that the pro- 

 vision of this will save the game, but it goes to 

 prove that a fox is not as strictly carnivorous as is 



