THE LIFE OF A FOX. 53

have observed before, the heat affects the hounds,
it is more usual for them to be moving about in
it than it is for us, and they therefore suffer from
it less.

I passed this summer most agreeably, living
much on beetles, with which the forest abounds,
occasionally visiting the sea-shore to seek for
dead fish, and getting a fair supply of rabbits.
The old rabbits frequently laid up their young in
the open parts of a country, in the middle of
fields, or any where far from hedges, pro-
bably to be more out of the way of stoats and
weasels. The number of nests of young rabbits
that a single one of us destroys is so enormous,
that it would seem to many quite incredible.
I got well acquainted with the purlieus of the
forest in my frequent travels; in spite of which
my feet were never tired by treading on hard
flints, as they used to be in upper Hampshire ;
and, strange as it may appear, in that flinty
country I do not recollect ever having had them
cut or made sore by them, even when I was
pursued by the hounds; probably in some mea-

D3