DESTRUCTION FOR SAFETY OF MAN AND STOCK 121 



place names scattered throughout Scotland, even in the low- 

 lands whence man first banished it, still tell of its former 

 presence and abundance 1 . 



THE Fox OR TOD 



In the old laws the Fox ( Vulpes vulpes] (Fig. 29, p. 123) 

 keeps disreputable company with its cousin the Wolf, and 

 though both were equally warred against, the smaller animal, 

 as is the rule, has outlived its congener. The general dis- 

 tribution of the Fox throughout Scotland at the present day 

 belies the efforts that have been made to extirpate it, yet 

 its numbers are much reduced from those of former days, 

 when it was reckoned with the Wolf as an evil genius of 

 "tame bestiall." 



There's a tod aye blinkin' when the nicht comes doon, 

 Blinkin' wi' his lang een an' keekin' roond an' roon', 

 Creepin' by the fairmyaird when gloamin' is to fa', 

 And syne there'll be a chicken or a deuk awa' 

 Aye, when the guidwife rises, there's a deufc awa' ! 



VIOLET JACOB. 



There could be only one end to such iniquity persistent 

 pursuit and destruction, and for many a long year this has 

 been the fate of the Fox in Scotland. Even in the thirteenth 

 century, special hunters were chosen to keep its ravages in 

 check, for in 1288, in the days of the Maid of Norway, the 

 Court Chamberlain paid 525. \c>d. to two park-keepers and 

 one fox-hunter at Stirling. The fox-hunter long remained 

 an institution in Scotland, but his efforts fell short of the need, 

 and other means had to be taken to keep Foxes in check. 

 One such method was the offering of a reward to a fox-slayer : 

 a Statute of James II enacted, in 1457, that "quha evir he 

 be that slays a fox and brings the hede to the schiref, lorde, 

 barone or bailye, he sail haif vjd [sixpence]." But persuasion 



1 Witness a few names gathered at random : in southern counties, such 

 names as Wolf-gill in Dumfries, Wolf-hope, Wolfelee, Wolf-cleugh in Rox- 

 burghshire, the Wolf Craigs on Baddingsgill Burn on the southern slopes 

 of the Pentland Hills, Wolfstan in Linlithgow; in more northern districts 

 Wolf-crag on the shoulder of the Ochil Hills, Wolfhill in Perthshire, Wolf- 

 hole in the parish of Birse, Aberdeenshire ; and in the Gaelic lands, Toul- 

 vaddie or Toll-a'-mhadaidh the Wolfs Hole, the names of many burns, 

 as Allt-mhadaidh and Allt-a'-choin uidhre Burn of the Dun Wolf, and 

 lochans such as Loch-a'-mhadaidh and Lochan-a'-mhadaidh-riabhaich the 

 Loch of the Brindled Wolf. 



