LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



a favourite trick of the fox is to lead the hounds 

 on to thin ice over deep water, and that dogs are 

 often drowned in this manner. Although follow- 

 ing a totally different style of hunting, and one 

 which is tabooed in England and our own more 

 southern States, he still entertains pretty much 

 the same feeling towards the object of his pursuit, 

 looking upon it not as vermin to be destroyed on 

 all occasions, but as game worthy of being pro- 

 tected at proper seasons. Accordingly, he never 

 allows his dogs to follow a she-fox during the 

 latter part of the winter, and beyond a shadow of 

 a doubt would suffer his last chicken to disappear 

 rather than shoot one in the summer. The fox 

 seems to have little instinctive fear of the dog, and 

 it is not an uncommon thing to see them playing 

 together in the pastures on the most friendly 

 terms ; while there are very few dogs that dare 

 to engage an old fox in single combat. Last 

 spring I heard a hound baying on the track of a 

 fox, and soon after saw him emerge from the 



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