d, to which, at the time, the cub attached
considerable importance. He had killed what seemed to be a large, heavy
rabbit, which, though evidently possessed of a healthy appetite, was
almost scentless, and differed in taste from any he had hitherto
captured. He was not particularly hungry, so he buried the insipid
flesh, and resolved never to destroy another rabbit that did not yield a
full, strong scent. Shortly afterwards, when, under the eye of the
bright August moon, Vulp and the vixen were hunting in the wheat-fields,
he detected a similarly weak scent along the hedgerow, and learned from
his wise mother it was that of a doe-hare about to give birth to her
young, and therefore hardly worth the trouble of following. The vixen
further explained that, except when other food was scarce, creatures
occupied, or about to be occupied, with maternal cares--even the lark in
the furrow and the willow-warbler in the hole by the brook--were far
less palatable than at other times. The cub was also told how, just
before he came into the world, the hounds had chased his mother from the
thicket, and how old Reveller, the leader of the pack, had headed the
reckless puppies, and, rating them for their discourtesy, had led them
away to scour another part of the covert.

With the advance of autumn, a great change passed over the countryside.
The young fox now found it necessary to choose his paths with care as he
wandered through the darkness, lest the rabbits should be warned of his
approach by the crisp rustle of his "pads" on the leaves that had fallen
in showers on the grass. Hitherto he had associated the presence of man
with that of something good for food. An occasional dead rabbit was
still to be found near the old "earth," and, strange to relate, the
man-scent leading to the place was never fresher or staler than that of
the rabbit. In another spot--a wood-clearing not far from the keeper's
lodge--the strong scent of pheasants always seemed to indicate that the
birds had ventured thither in numbers to feed, and there, too, the
man-scent was strong on the grass. The tracks of innumerable little
creatures intersected the clearing in all directions, and, if but for
the sport of watching the pheasants, the pigeons, the sparrows, and the
voles playing and quarrelling in the undergrowth or partaking of the
food provided by the keeper, the fox loved to lurk in the gorse near by.
He evinced little real alarm even at the sight of man, t