From Fox's Earth 



For the rest, the habits of the earth mammals 

 are crepuscular, or nocturnal. Even in summer 

 only late wanderers may meet with them. Per- 

 secuted by day, they seem to find more peace in 

 the dark. Where the persecution is greatest, the 

 late habits are more pronounced. There are 

 transition phases in the same district. 



A solitary sportsman, preceded by a melancholy- 

 looking dog, came through the fence. He was in 

 hope of a hare. No hare scudded before him ; 

 not even a rabbit. He came slowly up the in- 

 cline. In the glow of sunset he was picturesque, 

 touched with the same tawny shade as the 

 Lomonds. Otherwise unlionlike save in that 

 he was a beast of prey. The picturesqueness 

 was all. His bag remained empty. 



An hour later another hunter will quarter the 

 stubble. It will be the hour of the fox. The 

 shadow falls across the moonlit fields, the yelp 

 comes from the pitchy dark of the moonless 

 night. Vision and sound are less familiar than 

 they were wont to be. Three days a week, 

 barring frost, all winter long have the hounds 

 been out and done next to nothing. Coverts 

 once so reliable have drawn blank. A general 

 search made, in view of certain fixtures, revealed 

 but one fox. One covert had a single tenant. 

 Something is wrong ; some one has sinned ; so it 

 is whispered. Foxes are being destroyed by those 

 who are impatient of pleasures, which they do not 



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