256 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



life in the big woodlands : he crouches as he sees 

 you, but not so quickly that you may not note the 

 sinking of his glossy neck. Two or three rabbits 

 scuttle off to the doors of their burrows. Through 

 the bushes a hare steals away. No chalk-pit is 

 complete without a rabbit -burrow, a blackbird, and a 

 robin. If hounds came more often to the chalk- 

 pits they would save themselves many a blank hour. 

 There is no peace for the fox in the coverts, but the 

 old chalk-pit is as quiet as a church. 



An exciting moment for rabbiters comes if a fox 

 bolts from a burrow when only a rabbit is expected 



so exciting a moment that if there is a 

 When man with a gun the fox is lucky to escape 

 meet^ a s ^ ot especially should he have in his 

 Fox mouth the quivering body of a favourite 



ferret. And the ferret is lucky to come 

 alive from a hole if he meets the fox in the only 

 passage by which he can leave the burrow. But 

 ferrets often escape if the burrow is not a proper fox- 

 earth, but has been used only as a temporary shelter. 

 Even if caught in the fox's jaws there may be hope 

 for the ferret ; we heard of one who was none the 

 worse for a long ride between a fox's teeth. Like 

 dogs and cats, foxes can be soft -mouthed if they will. 

 We have known a fox to deal so tenderly with a 

 captured rabbit that it ran about after the long 

 jaws had released their hold ; and for some time it 



