FOXES, THEIR MODE OF LIVING. 77 



" Why, you don't mean to say that foxes will eat 

 lamb?" said I, appealing to West. "Well, not as 

 a rule, sir," said he, "unless they could get mint 

 sauce with it ; but, perhaps, they don't often get 

 lamb, and so they might be a bit extra hungry, and 

 then, I dare say, they'd manage to get it down on 

 a pinch." 



I don't remember seeing any chickens' remains 

 there, but I have no doubt they got some sometimes 

 for a change ; for I remember asking one of my 

 tenants, whom I met in a field, whether he had been 

 making any complaints about the foxes, as many 

 other farmers had done. 



" Well, sir," he said, " my mother is terribly put 

 out about them, they've taken, she says, a hundred 

 chickens this year, and that's a good many in one 

 year, you know, sir. We don't mind about fifty or 

 sixty chickens, but a hundred is rather too many." 

 "Well," I said, " H- , did you say anything to 

 the master ? " meaning the master of the hounds. 

 "Oh, yes, sir, I told him, but he don't care about 

 our chickens." "Why, what did he say to you to 

 make you think that ? " " Oh, sir, all he said was, 

 ' You should shut your chickens up.' ' We do, sir/ 

 said I, ' but they take them in the day-time.' 



