CHAP. Xx. | CUNNING OF FOXES, 165 
he had no chance of catching one by dint of running; after 
considering a short time, he seemed to have formed his plans, 
and having examined the different gaps in the wall by which the 
hares might be supposed to go in and out, he fixed upon the one 
that seemed the most frequented, and laid himself down close to 
it in an attitude like a cat watching a mouse-hole. Cunning 
as he was, he was too intent on his own hunting 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 cutwitted, and kept my rifle ready 
to shoot him if he found me out and attempted to escape. In 
the mean time 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 reconnoitre 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 still 
more flatly to the ground—presently two came directly towards 
him ; though he did not venture to look up, I saw by an invo- 
luntary motion of his ears, that those quick organs had already 
warned him of their approach; the two hares came through the 
gap together, and the fox springing with the quickness of light- 
ning caught one and killed her immediately; he then lifted up 
his booty and was carrying 1t 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 won- 
dered 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 witha 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 
