WHEN FOXES MATE 289 



oiling. An all-round tidying-up of his varied assort- 

 ment of tackle certainly makes for a temporary 

 improvement in the look of his work-places but, 

 as it has been with every clearance, the same old 

 lumber is once more reprieved. " You see," says the 

 keeper, " it might come in useful some time." 



Soon after Christmas the gamekeeper hears the bark- 

 ing of foxes at night, and he well knows the reason. 

 The foxes are searching for mates. And 



When here is one of many reasons why hounds in 



FOXBS 



mate these days fail to find foxes in woods never 



hitherto drawn blank. Hunting and shoot- 

 ing have disturbed the quiet of the coverts, the 

 underwood harvest is going forward, the supply of 

 fox- food is shorter than at any other time, and is most 

 hard to catch ; so foxes generally have forsaken their 

 haunts, finding lodging in out-of-the-way places 

 which offer some chance of peace and quietness. 

 Followers of hounds have much to learn about the 

 ways of the fox in January. They go from one blank 

 covert to another, cheerfully riding an intervening 

 couple of miles, while all the time the fox is lurking 

 in a dell or a hedgerow only two hundred yards from 

 the first covert drawn. Yet a suggestion that the 

 dell or the hedgerow should be tried meets with silent 

 scorn. This might be expected from people who hunt 

 to ride, or people new to the hunting-field ; but it does 



T 



