in the Fox and other Animals. 567 



man in the North was going to his work through furze bushes 

 on a common, and came upon a fox stretched out at length 

 under the side of one of the bushes. The fox was drawn out by 

 the tail, swung right and left, and then laid on the ground ; but 

 not a symptom of motion or life did he show. The man, never 

 doubting that Reynard had gone the way of all foxes, and 

 nothing loth to add a fox-skin cap to the list of his personal gar- 

 niture, and the brush to the tail of peacock's feathers, and other 

 ornamental trophies, over the little looking-glass that stood in- 

 clined from the wall of his cottage, took the animal by the 

 tail, and swung it over the one shoulder, at the same time 

 placing his mattock on the other, to keep up the balance ; and 

 having done so, onward he trudged to mend the high road, 

 for the accommodation of those who got foxes and their 

 brushes in another way, which was his ordinary vocation. 

 The two shoulderings were not exactly paired, and so the mat- 

 tock began to assail the ribs of the fox in no very gracious 

 manner. The animal had counterfeited death to admiration, 

 and he did not mind being carried in the manner of a dead fox 

 (it is remarkable, that dead animals are usually carried with 

 the head down); but, dead as he seemed, he had no inclin- 

 ation to undergo that species of dissection which the point of 

 the mattock was ever and anon giving his ribs: so at last he 

 gave that decisive snap which we have described as the charac- 

 teristic bite of foxes, on that portion of the labourer's rear 

 which is supposed to be more sensitive to all manner of inflic- 

 tions than any other region of the human body. The man 

 felt that something was the matter, but knew not very well what: 

 so, throwing fox and mattock from him, he turned round to 

 face the foe, whoever he might be ; and, in turning, he espied 

 his dead fox at the distance of full fifty yards, making for the 

 brake with all imaginable speed. The man was much an- 

 noyed at his adventure, and wished to conceal it ; only he told 

 it to his fellow-labourer as a great secret ; and thus, as is gene- 

 rally the case with secrets confided in this way, rendered it 

 better worth telling than it otherwise would have been. 



" We shall mention one other anecdote, which came within 

 the personal knowledge of the writer of this article ; because it 

 throws some light on the mode of action of the fox, as well as 

 confirms the truth of his counterfeiting death in all cases 

 where there is a likelihood that it may ensue. The parsonage 

 of Kilmorac, in Inverness-shire, is situated in a highly roman- 

 tic spot. It is near the brow of one of the precipices which 

 form a gorge, through which the river Beauly has, in the 

 lapse of ages, cut a deep channel through a great length of 

 rock, thus emptying a lake which must at one time have occu- 



t x 4 



