Savage Attack by a Fox, 73 



will stand a charge fired broadside at a short distance 

 without the slightest injury or apparent notice, beyond 

 a slight quickening of his pace. His thick fur and 

 tough skin turn the pellets. Even when mortally 

 wounded, life will linger for hours. 



The ordinary idea of the fox is that of a flying 

 frightened creature tearing away for bare existence ; 

 he is really a bold and desperate animal. The keeper 

 will tell you that once when for some purpose he was 

 walking up a deep dry ditch his spaniel and retriever 

 suddenly ' chopped ' a fox, and got him at bay in a 

 corner, when he turned, and in an instant laid the 

 spaniel helpless and dying and severely handled the 

 retriever. Seeing his dogs so injured and the fox 

 as it were under his feet, the keeper imprudently 

 attempted to seize him, but could not retain his 

 hold, and got the sharp white teeth clean through his 

 hand. 



Though but once actually bitten, he recollects 

 being snapped at viciously by another fox, whom he 

 found in broad daylight asleep in the hollow of a 

 double mound with scarcely any shelter and within 

 sixty yards of a house. Reynard was curled upon the 

 ivy which in the hedges trails along the ground. The 

 keeper crawled up on the bank and stopped, admiring 

 the symmetry of the creature, when, purposely break- 



