1 6 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



strangers to such feelings of mingled regret and pity as those 

 which once came over me on a moor near Crossfell. We were 

 tramping along on a fine summer evening, when suddenly a 

 beautiful red vixen sprang out of the heather close to our feet. 

 When my terrier dashed off in pursuit, we saw with sorrow that 

 one of her dainty ' pads ' had been cruelly crushed in the heavy 

 iron trap which was dangling from the extremity of the broken 

 limb. So little does a native of these parts appreciate the 

 criminality of destroying Foxes in cold blood, that he has no 

 scruple in advertising the success of the strategy employed for 

 the safety of the hardy Herdwick sheep, by exposing the 

 carcasses of his victims to the public view. When the Rev. T. P. 

 Hartley visited Mardale in 1888, he came across three defunct 

 Foxes suspended in a row from a small tree, the hind-legs 

 having been trussed together to improve the artistic effect of 

 the exhibition. Old sportsmen love to argue about local breeds 

 of Foxes. Most of the number maintain that the ' terrier ' Fox 

 is an animal that lives on the lower grounds. The ' greyhound ' 

 is, of course, the Fox of the hills. Captain Kinsey Dover, who 

 long resided at Keswick, used to maintain that the Foxes paid 

 for by the Crosthwaite churchwardens of bygone days were 

 ' of what we used to call the " greyhound " breed ; they had much 

 longer legs than the present race, and with no black upon 

 them ; the face was also much longer — in fact, it was larger in 

 every way than the black-footed Irish one. It is now quite 

 extinct in this district [1882], and has been for many years 

 past. I knew the animal well.' 



Little has been said of the Foxes which have their earths in 

 our larger coverts. The individuals which take to life on the 

 mosses are often troublesome to nesting birds, such as wild 

 ducks engaged in the duties of incubation. But they afford 

 grand sport on occasion, not perhaps furnishing such heroic tales 

 as those which are best recited at the fireside of the shepherd's 

 lonely house on Skiddaw, but still affording a lively interest 

 to those who have the good luck to follow them across 

 country. 



1 Zoologist, 1882, p. 108. 



