CHAPTER VI 



THE HUNTED FOX 



Mr. Darwin in the ' Descent of Man ' writes that 

 fox cubs in a country where they are much hunted 

 are more wary than elsewhere. This is a quotation 

 from Le Roy's delightful little book. 1 But it refers 

 not so much to the foxes in hunting countries as to 

 those that live in places where they are treated as 

 vermin. Foxes in Scotland, in those parts of Wales 

 where there are no hounds, and in the Hudson Bay 

 Territory where they are trapped for their skins, are 

 doubtless more wary than in the hunting countries 

 of England. They seem to know when they are 

 respected, and to impose upon their hosts. On one 

 estate where the foxes have been long preserved they 

 are extraordinarily bold. A vixen and cub have been 

 known to invade the poultry-yard by day, and to take 

 away chickens under the very eyes of the men who 

 were working on a haystack. The cub actually laid 

 1 Lettres sur V Intelligence des Animaux. 



