a a -

 

 

6 THE LIFE OF A FOX.

earth. It seemed that she had been watching
outside, for immediately after this we were alarmed
by a sound hitherto unheard by us. It was the
voice of a man crying out, “ Eloo in, Viper! fetch
em out! hie in there—hie in!” The light was
instantly shut out by the intrusion of a dog in a
low and narrow part of the passage, which com-
pelled him to crawl along with his head to the
bottom. Our mother waited for him, where she
had the advantage of higher space, and as he
approached with his head thus low, she fixed her
teeth across the upper part of his nose and pinned
him to the bottom of the passage, where she held
him so that he could not bite her, which he would
have done had she attacked him after he had got
beyond the lower part, when he might have
raised his head up'. Whilst bleeding and howling

1 If this were attended to in making artificial earths, it would
be an advantage to the fox, who might then defend himself better

_ from dogs of every sort : the great point is, to have the entrance

only just sufficiently high for him to get in.

They should be so arranged that the breeding places are
situated higher than the entrances, so that water may run away ;
and when it is necessary to make the earth on level ground, the