CHAPTER V. 



FOXES, THEIR MODE OF LIVING. 



FOXES are supposed to be most mischievous fellows, 

 and so I suppose they are, and whether it be flesh 

 or fowl, so long as they have the fun of killing it 

 themselves, there is not much that comes amiss to 

 them. They are said to live principally upon mice 

 and black beetles it is all very well to try and 

 make a non-fox-preserver believe such a thing, but a 

 real fox-preserver knows better, and would be sorry 

 to think that they got such a precarious living. 



I had once a very good opportunity of watching 

 their proceedings. A litter of cubs were laid up in 

 a gravel-pit, on the side of a hill, within sight of 

 my front door, and when they had grown big enough 

 to come out of their earth and play about, I could 

 see them quite distinctly with a telescope. I don't 

 suppose that they had got many mice or black 



