BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 63 



part of the year when food courts his fastidious 

 appetite, and genial atmosphere renders his exis- 

 tence one of enjoyment without alloy ; but when the 

 piercing cold and inhospitable frosts of winter cause 

 his shining and dappled sides to change to rusty 

 brown, and the scanty blade has to be searched for 

 far and wide, when snows almost hide his favourite 

 heather, and the dried unsavoury blade cannot be 

 reached until his foot has scraped aside its frozen 

 covering ; — then the comfortable paddock, warm 

 shed, and nourishing food, would not be a bad 

 exchange for the snow-clad mountain. 



We hunt foxes, and the advocates of such sport, 

 if any aspersion is cast on their favourite pursuit, 

 bring forward as a plea that the fox is a noxious 

 animal ; now this is sheer sophistry. As an enthu- 

 siastic foxhunter myself, I should really hold it 

 beneath such character to bring forward so futile 

 and unnecessary an excuse ; no man hunts a fox 

 because he is noxious ; let him, like an honest fellow, 

 say he hunts him because his chase is a more en- 

 livening and enthusiastic one than any other in our 



