CHAP. xx.J CUNNING OF FOXES. 165 



he had no chance of catching one by dint of running ; after 

 considering a short time, he seemed to have formed his plans, 

 arid having examined the different gups in the wall by which the 

 hares might be supposed to go in and out, he fixed upon the one 

 that seemed the most frequented, and laid himself down close to 

 it in an attitude like a cat watching a mouse-hole. Cunning 

 as lie was, he was too intent on his own hunting to be aware 

 that I was within twenty yards of him with a loaded rifle, and 

 able to watch every movement he made ; I was much amazed to 

 see the fellow so completely outwitted, and kept my rifle ready 

 to shoot him if he found me out and attempted to escape. In 

 the mean time I watched all his plans : he first with great silence 

 and care scraped a small hollow in the ground, throwing up the 

 sand as a kind of screen between his hiding-place and the hares' 

 meuse every now and then, however, he stopped to listen, and 

 sometimes to take a most cautions peep into the field ; when he 

 had done this, he laid himself down in a convenient posture for 

 springing upon his prey, and remained perfectly motionless, with 

 the exception of an occasional reconnoitre of the feeding hares. 

 "When the sun began to rise, they came one by one from the 

 field to the cover of the plantation ; three had already come in 

 without passing by his ambush, one of them came within twenty 

 yards of him, but he made no movement beyond crouching still 

 more flatly to the ground presently two came directly towards 

 him ; though he did not venture to look up, I saw by an invo- 

 luntary motion of his ears, that those quick organs had already 

 warned him of their approach ; the two hares came through the 

 gap together, and the fox springing with the quickness of light- 

 ning caught one and killed her immediately ; he then lifted up 

 his booty and was carrying it off' like a retriever, when my rifle- 

 ball stopped his course by passing through his backbone, and I 

 went up and despatched him. After seeing this I never won- 

 dered again as to how a fox could make prey of animals much 

 quicker than himself, and apparently quite as cunning. 



One day tin's winter, we attempted to beat the thickets and 

 rough ground in the sandhill district for foxes. Having ap- 

 pointed a place of meeting, I went with a friend and four couple 

 of beagles well entered to fox and roe, to meet the owner of 

 part of the ground and an adjoining proprietor. We were only 



