A Fox in a Drain. 165 



and climbs up into the hedge ; this plant had already 

 pushed up ten or twelve inches, so that the mouse on 

 the branch was just about on a level with the upper 

 and tenderest leaves. These he drew towards him 

 with his fore feet and conplacently nibbled. When 

 he had picked out what suited his fancy he ran along 

 the branch, and in an instant was lost to sight on 

 the bank among the grass. 



The nests of the ' harvest trow ' — a still smaller 

 mouse, seldom seen except in summer — are common 

 in the grass of the orchard ( and in almost every 

 meadow ) before it is mown. As the summer wanes 

 their dead bodies are frequently' found in the foot- 

 paths ; for a kind of epizoic seems to seize them at 

 that time, and they die in numbers. It is curious 

 that an animal which carefully conceals itself in 

 health should at the approach of death seek an open 

 and exposed place like a footpath worn clear of 

 grass. 



In the ha-ha wall, at that part of the orchard 

 where the highway hedge comes up, is the square 

 mouth of a rather large drain. The drain itself is of 

 rude construction — two stones on edge and a third 

 across at the top. It comes from the cowyard, pass- 

 ing under the outermost part of the garden a consid- 

 erable distance away from the house. Very early 

 one morning the laborers, coming to work, saw a fox 

 slip into the mouth of the drain through the long 

 grass of the meadow on which it opened. In the 

 summer, the cattle l^eing all out in the fields, the 

 drain was perfectly dr}', and it was known that now 

 and then the rabbits from the hedge made use of it 

 as a temporary place of concealment. No doubt the 



