Peacock : The Beck — A Study. 



267 



she will join them with the result of her forage. Like the other 

 animals we noticed visiting - the beck, the fox laps a little water, 

 and then moves along- under the shade and cover of the bank, 

 stopping every now and then to smell at a rat-hole, or making 

 a half-playful dart at the voles or shrews in the long grass by 

 the side of her path. If you turn the four-inch object glass on 

 her, you will see she is moving along a regular track she has 

 made by frequent use. She is in no hurry, as you can tell by 

 her gait, a little wasted. time will serve her purpose well, as the 

 only object of her present manoeuvring is to get to the leeward 

 of the rabbits, just out of sight and scent, as they play in the 

 open. Had she been lucky enough to pick up a pheasant in 

 the cover, she would not have troubled just then about a rabbit, 

 for in a fox's dietary feathers always stand before fur, as many 

 a Lincolnshire farmer's wife knows to her cost. At the pike-pool 

 the vixen stops and looks down into the water at the motionless 

 shark of the beck; she knows full well he is delicious food, but 

 not how to obtain him, though I believe in rare instances 

 both cats and foxes have been known to get expert in snatching 

 fish from their waters. After a little, she moves slowly on with the 

 same careless halting walk, killing time while the rabbits come 

 out to feed and play, till she nears the end of the reach, when 

 she turns up the bank. How changed is her manner of pro- 

 ceeding immediately, with what circumspection and care does 

 she creep and crouch, and how admirable is the spot she has 

 chosen for her purpose. A number of mounds and shallow 

 trenches, covering the ruins and foundations of an old religious 

 house, with thorn bushes, ant-hills, and patches of nettles 

 scattered about, make a splendid cover to approach the rabbits 

 from. We soon lose sight of her in a hollow beyond a buried 

 wall, but looking steadily at the bush half-way down its line, we 

 shall soon see her if the coast is clear. A minute later she is 

 skulking along, close to the ground, to the largest bush on the 

 tower hillock. Now all this stealthy manoeuvring has been for 

 one purpose, to make the rabbits believe she has crossed the 

 beck to forage on the other side, as she does sometimes, while 

 she gets to the leeward of them, so that she may approach close 

 up to them without being seen or smelt, either of which things 

 in their case would produce a like result, an incontinent bolt to 

 earth in their burrows. In the bush on the tower-hill the vixen 

 will lie hid for a few minutes, till a line young rabbit approaches 

 near enough to be suddenly rushed, when she w ill return straight 

 across the lea and wood to the roots of the old ash tree. Over 



hhh) September 1. 



