THE CUBS' PLAYGROUND 151 



and snaring rabbits in her favour. He leaves their 

 bodies, but scattered at a fair distance from the 

 earth, so that the vixen must spend some time in 

 fetching and carrying, and has the less time for 

 making a mixed bag of her own selection. 



Unseeing eyes pass blindly over the home of a litter 



of cubs ; but the keeper's never overpass the place. 



Long furrows through the dog's-mercury and 



The Cubs' grasses tell their tale. Primroses are torn 



Play- 



ground anc ^ crusne d, the great leaves of the burdock 



are bruised and broken, the moss is rubbed 

 from the underwood stumps and from the boles of 

 trees where the cubs have been gambolling and rubbing 

 their coats, the excavated soil near the earth is smooth 

 from the pattering of their feet, beaten hard and 

 polished and in all directions there are scattered 

 wings, feathers and bones. If the keeper calls, and 

 sees signs of recent rollicking play and fresh-killed 

 food, and fresh-drawn soil where the cubs amuse 

 themselves at earth-making and enlarging the burrows 

 of rabbits, he knows the family to be in residence. 

 Should the soil near the entrance to the earth have 

 a green look, he knows the family has gone away. 



Who would believe that a full-grown fox could 

 pass through the mesh of ordinary sheep-netting ? 

 four-inch mesh, if memory serves. We know of one 



