328 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



almost as often as they have sought safety in drains or out- 

 houses. Possibly a Fox's instinct — people are given to call it 

 intelligence now — may tell him that hounds cannot follow him 

 up a tree ; and, as it is an all but invariable rule with a Fox to 

 repeat on subsequent occasions any manoeuvre that may once 

 have been attended with success, it is not surprising that plenty 

 of authentic instances of tree-climbing by Foxes are to be met 

 with. 



In ' The Field ' of Jan. 2nd, 1886, an account is given of a 

 Fox taking to the sea. This happened during a run with the 

 East Sussex hounds in December, 1885. The meet, says an 

 eye-witness, was at St. Leonard's Green, and the Fox was found 

 in Hollington Church Wood, when, crossing the S. E. E., he 

 headed across the marshes for Pebsham, through which he 

 raced hard pressed by a single hound. He crossed the L. B. and 

 S.C.K. close to Bulverhythe, and ran on to the beach, where the 

 hound gave up and came back to the body of the pack, which 

 was running another Fox found in Pebsham. "We got them off 

 and brought them on to the beach where the Fox was last 

 viewed. Here we heard that, after lying under the breakwater 

 for a few minutes, he had taken to the sea, and we could just 

 view him floating about three-quarters of a mile out. A boat 

 was dispatched to bring him ashore ; on reaching him he was 

 found to be alive, but the boatman, not caring to risk a bite, hit 

 him on the head with a scull. He was given to the hounds, who 

 broke him up on the beach." For a Fox to swim nearly a mile 

 out to sea, and to be found alive after being in the water for 

 thirty minutes, is an occurrence, if not without parallel, at least 

 worthy of record. 



Were a Fox-hunter asked whether hounds "retrieve," he 

 would probably laugh at the idea. Such a thing, however, has 

 been known to occur. In December, 1880, the Grove Hounds 

 met at Gringley-on-the-Hill, and the Fox, after a good run, took 

 to the bank of the river Idle, near Misterton, where he was headed 

 by a barge, and took refuge in a neighbouring brick-yard. From 

 this place he was soon unearthed, and made for the river. He 

 managed to reach the opposite bank, where he was hauled down 

 and worried, and, as the huntsman could not get to the hounds, 

 it was fully expected they would tear him in pieces "ere ever they 

 were got to." But what was the surprise of everyone to see, on 



