FOXES, THEIR MODE OF LIVING. 85 



or a baker's shop ; nothing comes amiss to him in such 

 a time of distress and fatigue. Should he not find 

 hospitality at hand, he will often find his way to 

 some pond, into which he will plunge, and there stand 

 looking a most pitiable object, with the hounds baying 

 round him. till the huntsman, or some other good 

 Samaritan, having procured a rope, puts it round his 

 antlerless head, and thus drags him to the shore. 



Through sheer funk the fine animal has gone straight 

 ahead, and has afforded the greatest gratification to all 

 by having given a good run. 



He is then again carted, and promised "a happy 

 return of the day " should he survive his day's plea- 

 suring. He, however, I fear, must feel himself sadly 

 degraded in appearance, and cannot hold his head up 

 as proudly as he was wont to do when he aspired to 

 the title of the "antlered monarch of the waste." 



Perhaps some of my readers may be stag-hunters, 

 " calf-hunters," as they are often termed, and from the 

 fact of there being no foxes in the country in which 

 they live, and feeling it incumbent upon them to hunt 

 something, faut de mieu%, hunt the deer. 



There cannot, as far as I can see, be the same 

 pleasure in hunting a tame animal as there is in 

 hunting a wild one, but all men have necks to break, 



