THE FOX : HIS METHODS OF HUNTING. 
281 
that he has recourse to the procedure of associarion. So lono^ as 
lying in wait appears preferable to the chase, he keeps dark. It 
is the method of hunting that he oftenest practices in regard to the 
rabbit, a game easily surprised at leaving its hole ; by hiding be- 
hind the trunk of a tree, a bush, or a clump of thorns. In the 
summer, when the wheat is high, he fears not to risk himself in 
full daylight, when he surprises the leverets in their laii', or the 
partridges and quails on their nests. 
It is not rare that the fox, watching for a hare at its exit 
or entrance, finds the place occupied by a poacher, and vice 
versa. The poacher, a born humorist, never fails to say on such 
an occasion ; this morning or this evening I met with a great mis- 
h^^. We were two of us watching for the same hare, and I shot 
my comrade. 
To hunt the hare by running, the fox acts in the same manner 
as the dog and the wolf to force larger beasts. They find the 
course that the hare is likely to take: a fox, two foxes, post 
themselves on the path at the places most favorable for a sur- 
prise, there wait to seize the hare as he passes, while another drives 
him on, barking to indicate the direction. When the fox that 
started him is tired of running, one of those lying in wait takes 
his place, and thus consecutively until the hare be either seized, 
run down, or missed ; but foxes seldom attack the large hares if 
they can find little ones. 
The sharp barkings heard on all sides at night, in the countries 
Infested by foxes, and which resemble the voices of pug dogs, an- 
nounce the return of foxes from the chase. 
I have often heard the story of that fox who, after having bit- 
terly reproached his hunting companion for missing the hare, re- 
peats before him the leap he should have made, and seems not to 
understand how he could be so awkward. 
One evening as I was returning from a wild- boar hunt in the 
mow, a hare started before us and ran toward the woods ; some 
:>f our dogs saw it and pursued. But the hare had hardly time 
,o gain the bushes before we heard its cry of distress. I sup- 
posed that one of our dogs had caught it, or that it was taken in 
some snare, and I ran full speed to get hold of it before it should 
