214 THE FOX. 



into one of these ancient sons of the forest on a moonlight night 

 to watch the foxes at their vesper pastime. Thus seated aloft, I 

 could see the cubs as playful as kittens, catching each other by their 

 brushes, now standing on three legs, as if in the act of listening, 

 then performing somersets, sometimes snarling, sometimes barking; 

 and often playing at a kind of hide-and-seek, as we used to do when 

 I was a lad at school. On one occasion, whilst I was thus perched 

 aloft, old Reynard brought a fine pike, weighing, I should say, full 

 three pounds, to the mouth of the hole, and instantly it was worried 

 by the brood. 



At the final breaking up of these ancient fox-earths, just a few 

 months before the park wall was finished, I had directed the game- 

 keeper to stop the mouths at his usual hour of midnight, knowing 

 that Reynard and all his family would be from home in quest of 

 plunder. At sunrise, we commenced the work of digging ; and in 

 the course of the day we came upon two full-grown badgers, which 

 I kept for a few hours, and then turned loose again upon the world 

 at large, there to seek another place of residence. 



Foxes generally bring forth in early spring but I have known 

 exceptions to this rule ; and they produce from four to five at one 

 annual litter. 'Tis well for us they are not so prolific as the Hano- 

 verian rat Did they breed as fast as this thief, and as many at a 

 time, whole flocks of sheep would not suffice to meet their wants. 

 Young foxes are well advanced in size by the end of June. The 

 appearance every now and then of a lean and scabby fox may often 

 be attributed to the dangerous practice of gamekeepers placing 

 poisoned eggs, and pieces of poisoned meat, to destroy what they 

 usually denominate running and flying "varment." All lords of 

 manors and occupiers of land ought to prohibit peremptorily this 

 never-to-be-sufficiently condemned practice of putting poisoned food 

 in hedge bottoms and in rabbit runs. When rats are to be destroyed, 

 the bait may be thrust deeply into their holes, and very few pieces 

 of it at one time. I am of opinion that there are not three distinct 

 species of foxes in Great Britain. Naturalists who have written on 

 the nature and habits of the fox, can produce nothing but a difference 

 in size to support their argument that we have more species than one. 

 I consider the difference in size of foxes to be attributed either to 



