36 THE LIFE OF A FOX.

Rabbits are too often the perquisites of the
game-keeper, and the iron traps which he sets
with the pretence of catching them are the
destruction of hundreds of us. This might be
prevented if the master would only insist on these
traps not being employed at all, and compel the
use of the wire snare, and of ferrets to get the
rabbits out of their burrows.

Having by this time learnt from my mother
all that she could teach me, I followed her ex-
ample in many things. Amongst them I remarked,
that on a wet and windy night, she almost always
chose, for various reasons, to lie in a gorse covert.
It is generally dry and without droppings from
trees; it is also more quiet and freer from the
roaring of the wind than when near to them.
Besides this, we are not so liable to be disturbed
by the shooters, and though we should be so, are
out of sight. We are also there out of sight of
some of our troublesome feathered neighbours,
the crows, magpies, and jays, who would betray us
when moving abroad during the day-time. They

are always moving with the first appearance of