i88 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



to be aware that I was within twenty yards of him with a loaded 

 rifle, and able to watch every movement he made ; I was much 

 amazed to see the fellow so completely outwitted, and kept my 

 rifle ready to shoot him if he found me out and attempted to 

 escape. In the meantime I watched all his plans : he first with 

 great silence and care scraped a small hollow in the ground, 

 throwing up the sand as a kind of screen between his hiding- 

 place and the hares' meuse — every now and then, however, he 

 stopped to listen, and sometimes to take a most cautious peep 

 into the field ; when he had done this, he laid himself down in 

 a convenient posture for springing upon his prey, and remained 

 perfectly motionless, with the exception of an occasional recon- 

 noitre of the feeding hares. When the sun began to rise, they 

 came one by one from the field to the cover of the plantation ; 

 three had already come in without passing by his ambush, one 

 of them came within twenty yards of him, but he made no 

 movement beyond crouching j still more flatly to the ground — 

 presently two came directly towards him ; though he did not 

 venture to look up, I saw by an involuntary motion of his ears 

 that thosequick organs had already warned him of their approach; 

 the two hares came through the gap together, and the fox 

 springing with the quickness of lightning caught one and killed 

 her immediately ; he then lifted up his booty and was carrying 

 it off like a retriever, when my rifle-ball stopped his course by 

 passing through his backbone, and I went up and despatched 

 him. After seeing this I never wondered again as to how a 

 fox could make prey of animals much quicker than himself, and 

 apparently quite as cunning. 



One day this winter, we attempted to beat the thickets and 

 rough ground in the sandhill district for foxes. Having ap- 

 pointed a place of meeting, I went with a friend and four couple 

 of beagles well entered to fox and roe, to meet the owner of 

 part of the ground and an adjoining proprietor. We were only 

 four guns. Having placed the other three in passes along the 

 edge of the swamps, through which the roe and foxes would 

 have to make- their way on going from one wood to the other, 

 I went into the thickets with the keepers and hounds. We had 

 hardly entered when up got a fine buck, and the beagles were 

 immediately laid on, and away they went ; I ran to a small 

 height from which I bad a good view of the country — aw^y 



