THE FOX. 323 



and yet Foxes and Babbits have sometimes been found in the 

 same earth, from which they have been bolted with a ferret (See 

 'The Field,' Nov. 13th and 20th, 1886). Occasionally, however, 

 the Fox declines to be thus summarily evicted, and kills the 

 ferret. Instances of this are recorded in ' The Field ' of March 

 14th, and April 4th, 1885. 



In light, dry soils Foxes will dig out a good roomy burrow to 

 lie in, or will appropriate that of a Kabbit or Badger. In wet 

 clay soil they will lie above ground, amongst gorse or other 

 bushes, or under roots of old trees, or in the hollows of them. 

 The moorland Foxes will lie out some distance in the heather, 

 curled up in a snug form. You may come upon them sometimes 

 when deer-stalking. 



Huntsmen often assert that Foxes and Badgers do not 

 agree ; that the latter drive the former away, and that therefore 

 they ought to be destroyed. This is a mistake, for they not only 

 do not interfere with one another, but have been known to occupy 

 adjoining chambers in the same earth. I have mentioned several 

 instances of this in my account of the Badger (' Zoologist,' 1888, 

 pp. 5 — 10). Huntsmen are apt to be a little hard upon all 

 animals except the particular one which it is their pleasure to 

 pursue. This, and this alone, must be protected ; all others 

 must give way. 



Although much has been written on the subject, it is not 

 quite clear who first kept a pack of hounds exclusively for hunt- 

 ing the Fox. In the early days of hunting, Foxes, like other 

 noxious animals, were unearthed, mobbed, and killed anyhow, 

 being regarded as vermin. We need only turn to such works as 

 Blount's 'Ancient Tenures' to find numerous instances of grants 

 of land held by the service of killing the Fox, Wolf, Otter, Gray 

 or Badger, and Wild Cat. But then they were pursued not so 

 much for the pleasure of hunting, as for the satisfaction of des- 

 troying a noxious animal, and this service was rendered in lieu of 

 rent. Even so late as the days of the Stuarts, Foxes were indis- 

 criminately slaughtered in the woods whenever a great hunt took 

 place, and it is certain that packs of hounds were kept for the chase 

 of the Stag, Buck, Hare, and even Otter, long before the Fox was 

 raised to the dignity of being hunted in the same way.* Harriers, 



* The history of the Devon and Somerset Stag-hounds can be traced back 

 to the year 1598, when Hugh Pollard, Queen Elizabeth's Kanger, kept a pack 



8p3 



