THE FOX. 63 



foxes * generally redesign parts of it to their own 

 tastes, filling in the unused corridors to exclude 

 draught. 



CUBHOOD DAYS. 



Every infant fox is taught the lessons of life by 

 its parents, and the cubs of a wise mother grow up 

 wise foxes.t As soon as they are old enough to 

 play about the mouth of the den, their lessons 

 begin. First they are taught to use their noses ; 

 the parents, having brought food for them, hide 

 it some little distance from the earth, and leave 

 the cubs to locate it by their own keenness and 

 cleverness. Thus the clever cub fares well, while 

 the dull member of the family comes in only at 

 the tail-end of the feast. A little later they are 

 taught to pounce mice out of the grass ; taught 

 the folly of chasing the fleet-winged grouse that 

 rise from the heather ; and taught that, above all, 

 stealth and cunning are the crowning virtues of 

 the master of woodcraft. 



One day their mother leads them to a new track 

 on the hillside, and sniffing it, she bristles and 

 growls, looks this way and that, then sneaks 

 swiftly into the heather, keeping in the hollows, 

 never showing herself against the skyline. Each 

 cub sniffs the new track, bristles and growls 

 because his mother did so, and sneaks furtively 

 after her, fearful of some unknown peril. And 

 after that day the scent of that track brings fear 

 to the heart of the fox-cub, and encountering it in 

 his rambles, he sneaks off through the hollows, for 

 it is the scent of the watchful shepherd ! 



Every nursery of fox-cubs has its playthings, such 



* I have seen both parents engaged in digging the burrow. H. M. B. 

 + See HARE. 



