Fox-Hunting 295 



they strike a truly vital part. Weasels kill 

 from pure blood-thirst, first sucking the blood 

 of their victims, then finishing them with a 

 bite through the base of the brain. Reynard 

 returns again and again to prey partly eaten. 

 Wild-cats will not touch it — each meal de- 

 mands a fresh victim. And weasels not only 

 make fresh kills, but kill, and kill, and kill, 

 long after they are completely gorged with 

 blood. 



A red fox sharp-set from long fasting will 

 devour a whole goose or turkey. If occasion 

 serves, he may kill and eat one chicken, then 

 kill and half eat a second. But if he supped 

 well last night, and for many nights before, 

 hence is in generous condition, one chicken 

 or half a goose suffices, though he may kill 

 another and drag it home, then come back 

 himself next night, either to finish a carcass, 

 or to kill anew. Gray foxes are neither so 

 big nor so rapacious as red ones. One full- 

 grown chicken is their limit, or a nest of 

 field-mice, or a brace of very young rabbits. 

 It is a mistake to think of foxes as living high 

 upon poultry the year round. They hunt the 

 fields as sedulously as men do, and only per- 

 mit themselves to feed on things tame and 

 fatted when their favorite wild ones are not 

 to be had. 



Gray foxes are most common in Tennes- 



