To Mountain Tarn 



taken, nor any blame, moral or otherwise, attached. 

 As the partridge to the lowland fox, so the grouse 

 to the hill fox. But the point of view is not 

 quite the same. Traps are so set round the lair 

 that when the vixen comes out she must get into 

 one of them. The cubs die of starvation, and 

 the dog fox when he arrives to see what has 

 come over his mate is shot. 



As a matter of fact he does not kill many 

 grouse. The wing is sufficient protection to any 

 vigilant bird against a ground enemy. If he falls 

 an occasional victim, that only means that his 

 vigilance should be increased. He must learn to 

 look about him more sharply, be fitter to live, 

 and be a game bird. The fox is as much a friend 

 of the sportsman as the golden eagle, and takes 

 less toll for it ; the gun turned on him shoots a 

 friend. If the grouse is to be as virile as the 

 partridge, like the partridge, it must owe it to 

 the fox. 



The white hare has no wings, and is much more 

 easily got. The main function of the hare seems to 

 be to feed the golden eagle and the fox, and keep 

 them from seeking food elsewhere. Many trouble- 

 some smaller creatures, which by increase of 

 numbers might become vermin, are consumed in 

 times of stress. The evil manners live in brass, 

 the virtues we write in water. For his grave mis- 

 demeanours the only fine exacted from the low- 

 land fox is that, some day or other, will be a run 



