Reason and Instinct. 5471 



very much to get bold of some hares that were feeding in it, but ap- 

 parently knew that he had no chance of catching one by dint of run- 

 ning; 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 on the one 

 which seemed the most frequented, and laid himself down close to it, 

 in an attitude like a cat watching a mouse-hole. * * 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 motion- 

 less, 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 involuntary 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 lightning, caught one and killed her immediately. * * 

 After seeing this I never wondered again as to how a fox could make 

 prey of animals much quicker than himself, and apparently quite as 

 cunning.' 7 (' Highland Sports,' p. 164.) "A fox had been partially 

 tamed, and was kept fastened by a chain to a post in a courtyard, 

 where he was chiefly fed with boiled potatoes. But the animal seems 

 to have thought that a desirable addition might be made to his fare 

 from the numerous fowls that strutted round him, but whose caution 

 kept them beyond the reach of so formidable an enemy. His measures 

 were soon taken ; and having bruised and scattered the boiled potatoes 

 which he had received for his dinner at the extremity of the space that 

 the length of his chain enabled him to command, he retired in an 

 opposite direction, to the full extent of his chain, and assumed the 

 appearance of utter regardlessness of all that was passing around him. 

 The stratagem succeeded ; and when some of the fowls had been 

 thrown so much off their guard as to intrude within the circle of 

 danger, the fox sprung from his lurking-place, and seized his prey." 

 flllust. of Instinct,' p. 176.) The following I have from an old and 

 much-valued friend, a good and scientific naturalist and excellent 



