low in the ground, throwing up the sand as a
kind of screen; 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 on his
prey, and remained perfectly motionless, with the exception of an
occasional reconnoiter of the feeding hares. When the sun began to rise,
they came, one by one, from the field to the plantation; three had
already come without passing by his ambush, one within twenty yards of
him, but he made no movement beyond crouching still more flatly to the
ground. Presently two came directly towards him, and 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; he then
lifted up his booty, and was carrying it off, when my rifle-ball stopped
his course."

In Captain Brown's "Popular Natural History," I find the following:--"In
the autumn of the year 1819, at a fox-chase in Galloway, a very strong
fox was hard run by the hounds. Finding himself in great danger of being
taken, Reynard made for a high wall at a short distance, and springing
over it, crept close under the other side: the hounds followed, but no
sooner had they leaped the wall, than he sprang back again over it, and
by this cunning device gave them the slip, and got safe away from his
pursuers."

An American gentleman of Pittsfield, accompanied by two blood-hounds,
found a fox, and pursued him for nearly two hours, when suddenly the
dogs appeared at fault. Their master came up with them near a large log
of wood lying on the ground, and felt much surprise at their making a
circuit of a few roods without any object in view, every trace of the
fox seeming to have been lost, while the dogs still kept yelping. On
looking about him the gentleman saw the fox stretched upon the log,
apparently lifeless. He made several unsuccessful efforts to direct the
attention of the dogs towards the place, and at length he approached so
near as to see the animal breathe. Even then Reynard did not show any
alarm; but his pursuer aimed a blow at him with the branch of a tree,
upon which he leaped from his lurking-place, and was taken.

One of the drollest incidents in fox-hunting was that at Newry, in
Ire