WHEN THE NIGHT FALLS. 235 



bird, if he has time and he is not detected, in 

 his mouth, and trots off with it, just as a re- 

 triever would carry a pheasant, clear off the ground 

 and in front of him. 



If the fox carried his prey as we have seen him 

 represented — with a duck, for instance, gripped 

 just below the head, a part of the duck's neck 

 being twisted round his own, and the body hanging 

 over on the other side of his foreleg — how long 

 would he go before he was choked ? If not choked, 

 how long would he loup along before that duck 

 flew off at an angle of some degree — we will not 

 be particular on that point — and hit him on the 

 side of the head ? I fancy he would use unpar- 

 liamentary language — • fox language of the most 

 reprehensible nature — when he dropped that duck 

 before his vixen lady. But he does not do any- 

 thing of the kind, although imaginative painters 

 have represented him in that attitude. 



When the pheasant trees for the night, and the 

 blackbird has settled like a dark ball in the hedge- 

 rows, there is little to be seen or heard in the 

 fields. In the grass - meadows you may, as you 

 pass through, listen to the munch, munch, munch 



