The Fox in the Drain 151 



quently found in the footpaths ; for a kind of epizoic seems 

 to seize them at that time, and they die in numbers. It 

 is curious that an animal which carefully conceals itself in 

 health should at the approach of death seek an open and 

 exposed place like a footpath worn clear of grass. 



In the ha-ha wall, at that part of the orchard where 

 the highway hedge comes up, is the square mouth of a 

 rather large drain. The drain itself is of rude construc- 

 tion — two stones on edge and a third across at the top. It 

 comes from the cowyard, passing under the outermost 

 part of the garden a considerable distance away from the 

 house. Very early one morning the labourers, coming to 

 work, saw a fox slip into the mouth of the drain through 

 the long grass of the meadow on which it opened. In the 

 summer, the cattle being all out in the fields, the drain 

 was perfectly dry, and it was known that now and then 

 the rabbits from the hedge made use of it as a temporary 

 place of concealment. No doubt the presence of a rabbit 

 in it was the cause of the fox entering in the first place. 

 The rabbit must have had a very bad time of it, for, the 

 drain being closed at the other end with an iron grating, 

 no possibility of escape existed. 



Prom the traces in the grass and on the dry mud at 

 the mouth it appeared as if the fox had ventured there 

 more than once ; and, as there were many chickens about, 

 his object in lying here was evident. The great hedge being 

 so near, and the narrow space between full of tall mowing 

 g rass — the edge of the ha-ha wall, too, clothed with stone- 

 crop and grasses growing in the interstices of the loose 

 stones, and further sheltered by a low box hedge — it was 

 a place almost made on purpose for Reynard's cunning 

 ambuscade. He is as bold or even bolder than he is cun- 

 ning A young dog sent up the drain came back quicker 



