2oo Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



perhaps accounts for the fooling proclivities of the Re- 

 nard family. 



If hounds break cover with a vixen during these domes- 

 tic affairs of the fox family after, say, the middle of 

 January, they are called off, and madame from that time 

 on is shown every consideration. She gets a bit of an 

 ousting now and then until her sex is discovered, and this 

 is no doubt very good for the future generation, for their 

 mothers may thus be able to transmit a bit of instinc- 

 tive knowledge about foxhounds that the foxes of an 

 earlier generation had to learn by hard experience. There 

 has been considerable discussion among hunting men as to 

 whether foxes are keener game now than they were forty 

 or fifty years ago. A comparison of the number killed 

 and of the length of runs would indicate that they are not. 

 We must consider, however, that foxhounds have steadily 

 improved, and horses as well, so that it need not follow 

 from statistics that foxes have lost their cunning. On the 

 contrary, they, as well as the hounds, are likely to have 

 grown in stoutness and stamina. 



Now come the planning and arrangement of the new 

 home. In the course of time a suitable lying-in room is 

 arranged on the ground floor, which apartment madame 

 arranges to suit herself. It is said that a vixen gives birth 

 to her cubs outside of the earth, and then moves in, bag and 

 baggage. Her lord and master basks in the sun on a 

 southern exposure of the covert by day, but at night goes 

 forth to replenish the larder, leaving madame to devote her 

 time to her household duties and prepare for the coming 

 event. 



