246 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



suggested to the keeper that there must be foxes 

 in the wood foxes near at hand, and very bold. 

 The keeper had reason to know better but on 

 picking up another headless pheasant, remarked 

 sadly, " If they treats 'em like this 'ere when they 

 be dead, it be cruel to think how they'd serve 'em 

 when they ketched 'em alive." The sportsman was 

 impressed by the keeper's melancholy tone, and 

 began to share his fox-enmity. But the keeper's 

 sharp eyes had seen what fate really had befallen the 

 pheasants' heads a fate strange enough, for as the 

 birds fell their heads were torn off by the forks of 

 ash-stems, in which they caught. 



By many signs keepers read the story of the presence 

 and work of foxes. A fox makes a half-hearted 



attempt to bury game that he has partly 

 Clues eaten, and wishes otherwise to dispose of 

 Thief an( ^ ^ e Buried game is so impregnated 



with his scent that no other creature will 

 touch it. He barks at night in mid-winter days 

 and spreads uneasiness among sheep, as betrayed 

 by the bleating of ewes. He digs in a way all his 

 own, throwing out the soil behind him in a slovenly 

 heap ; he noses about mole-heaps and ant-hills, 

 and his visit is easily detected. On soft spots he 

 leaves his footmarks and he always leaves his 

 scent behind him. Pheasants without tails tell a 

 story of a young fox's spring that failed to bring him a 



