LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



It is no very uncommon thing to see foxes 

 trotting along at their ease across the meadows, 

 either in summer or winter, and at all hours of 

 the day, and their barking also is often heard in 

 the daytime. I have seen one cross the field 

 on a rainy afternoon in the spring within one 

 hundred yards of my window, barking as he 

 went, and occasionally pausing to sniff — for 

 mice apparently — ^in the dead grass. 



Last June at about ten in the morning of one 

 of the hottest, brightest days we had, I heard the 

 crows cawing uneasily, and looking in their direc- 

 tion I saw a large fox trotting lazily along about 

 a quarter of a mile from the house, though from 

 the direction he was taking he must have been 

 much nearer a few minutes before. As he passed 

 among the cattle, I noticed that each turned its 

 head to look at him, but paid him no further 

 attention. 



A little further on, he jumped the brook and 

 stopped for a few seconds to nose about at the 



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