48 THE FOX 



who could know better ? — that when hounds had a 

 healthy mature fox in front of them, the odds were 

 six to four on the hunted animal making his escape. 



There was the famous Butterwick Jack, hunted 

 by Mr. Farquharson's hounds in the Blackmore Vale 

 country. The slightest sound was enough to start 

 him. He never waited to be found, but went away 

 at once. He always ran from Holnest to Dorchester, 

 taking the same line. Jack was invariably lost in the 

 water-meadows near Dorchester. Probably he took 

 refuge in a drain, for he was found drowned in these 

 meadows after a flood. Then there was Old Piebald 

 at Ropsley Rise, in the Belvoir country, who was 

 known to the Duke's woodmen for eleven years. He 

 had a remarkably thick pelt, and was grey with age 

 when at last Will Goodall and the Belvoir hounds 

 killed him. Old Piebald never went away, but clung 

 to the woods. 



The fact that the fox invariably adopts the method 

 of escape that he has once found effectual shows, in 

 spite of his cunning, the limitation of his intelligence ; 

 for if he be baulked of his accustomed trick he is 

 generally killed. But although a fox has, as a rule, 

 but one method of escape, the fox that climbs the 

 tree, runs along the top of the hedge, lies crouched in 

 the hedgerow or under the bank of the stream while 



