162 HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



It is quite an erroneous opinion that foxes subsist entirely 

 upon hares, rabbits, and pheasants. From long acquaintance 

 with and careful observance of their habits, from the time they 

 first leave the earth, where they have been bred as cubs, I have 

 been enabled to gain a tolerably correct insight into their mode 

 of living. When a boy, I took great pleasure in watching the 

 proceedings of a litter of cubs, which were laid up in a small 

 brake, about two fields from the house in wdiich I then lived. 

 In the evening, during the summer holidays, I used to go down 

 about eight o'clock, and sit under a tree, near the earth, to 

 watch their gambols. As the sun dropped below the horizon, 

 they made their appearance at the mouth of the earth, looking 

 cautiously and stealthily around them (my position was always 

 under the wind, or they would immediately have detected my 

 presence among them); after running in and out for a few 

 minutes, and looking round in all directions, they commenced 

 play, by jumping about like kittens, rolling on the ground and 

 pulling each other about, playing hide and seek behind the 

 bushes, and performing all kinds of antics. In an instant, if 

 alarmed, they would rush to the earth again, from which, in a 

 few minutes, they would cautiously emerge, and sit up to listen. 

 If all was still, they then proceeded a short distance to watch 

 for black beetles, which commence their flight in the evening. 

 Upon hearing the buzzing sound they make when striking the 

 ground, their attention was instantly directed to the spot where 

 the beetle fell, and a scramble ensued for the dainty morsel. 

 Many fell to their share during the evening. Mouse hunting 

 also "^ seemed a favourite amusement. It is astonishing the 

 quantity of beetles and mice which are devoured by young 

 foxes. They are the only game almost they have the power of 

 catching, until the month of August — the larder, of course, being 

 supplied during their infancy by their mother. Now, it may 

 scarcely be credited that the place where these cubs were bred 

 (and there was a litter there for many seasons following) was 

 our chief preserve, and abounded in game — rabbits swarmed — 

 yet I never saw a rabbit or any head of game killed by them 

 during all the seasons they were bred there. The earth was in 

 a brake, just opposite a large covert, and in the dell between, a 

 grass field, which in the evening was nearly covered with 

 rabbits. The young foxes would often go down, and skirmish 

 with them round the bushes, but their general hunting ground 

 was above the earth, in search of mice and beetles. 



It is a well-known fact, that foxes seldom prey at home, and 

 I have often seen the old vixen go straight through all this host 

 of rabbits, away over the hill, and return in about half an hour, 



