20 THE LIFE OF A FOX 



seeing her, some of them ran away for a few yards, 

 some sat up on then- hind legs and gazed at her, 

 and some squatted close to the ground. My mother 

 at fii'st trotted on gently, as if not observing them ; 

 she then lay down and rolled on her back, then got 

 up and shook herself; and so she went on till the 

 simple creatures, cheated by a show of simplicity, 

 and never dreaming she could be bent on anything 

 beyond such harmless diversion, fell to feeding 

 again, when she quietly leaped amongst them and 

 carried off an easy prey. 



We were now fully able to gain our own sub- 

 sistance, but not the less would she watch over our 

 safety. One of my brothers having found a piece 

 of raw meat had begun to devour it, which she ob- 

 serving ran forwards, and as if in anger di'ove him 

 away from it. He became sick and lost all his 

 hairs, owing to poison, which I afterwards learnt 

 had been put in the meat. It was fortunate for us 

 that we had left the breeding-earth, for we must 

 otherwise have all been infected with the same 

 noisome disease, the mange. By first smelling it, 

 and then turning away, she taught us in future to 

 avoid anything of the kind that had been touched 

 by the human hand. Thus when we happened to 

 be smelling with our noses to a bait covered over 



