ANIMALS' BEDS 5 



necessary to make a show of the fiercest displeasure if 

 anyone comes near who might carry their savings away. 

 As a rule it is only petted domestic animals that 

 are ' faddy ' about their beds. Many of these are 

 as particular about their arrangement as the old 

 ' nabob ' at St Romans Well, who drilled the house- 

 maid into adjusting his mattresses to the proper angle 

 of inclination. The writer has seen a little dachshund 

 which would not go to her basket until the blanket 

 had been held to the hall-stove. This she required 

 to be done in summer as well as winter, though 

 the stove was not lighted. A spaniel, kept in a stable, 

 used always to leave its kennel to sleep with the 

 horse. Hounds make a joint bed on the bench after 

 a long run, lying back to back, and so supporting 

 one another. But sporting dogs should have proper 

 beds made like shallow boxes with sloping sides. 

 They are far more rested in the morning than if 

 simply left to lie on straw. This was noted by a 

 clever old Devonshire clergyman, a great sportsman, 

 who observed that his best retrieving spaniel used 

 always to get into an empty wheelbarrow to sleep 

 when tired. The dog's bed should be a rough re- 

 production of a navvy's barrow standing on short legs. 

 Foxes are very careful to find a comfortable bed by day. 

 Their round ' forms ' in the long grass are made 

 well sheltered from the wind, often in the bottom 



