THE LIFE OF A FOX: 139

ing to Lord Hume, where I had not been long
when one day I heard two reports, which turned
out to be from the keeper’s gun, discharged
at two innocent young fox-hound puppies, thus
deliberately butchered for having strayed by
chance from the hospitable home of the kind mis-
tress whose pets they were, and whose gentle
care and caresses they had so often enjoyed. You
will not be surprised, when I tell you that our
race appears to be almost extinct about these
woods.

After this tragical event, I lost no ‘time, but
went to the farthest covert belonging to this
estate, and nearly surrounded by Lord Elcho’s
country. I hoped to be there as far as  pos-
sible from danger, and thought myself secure, as
the outside covert was kept quiet, and scarcely
disturbed even by the hounds of the Duke in
whose hunt it is retained. It is suspected that
the keeper kills all of us foxes that he can in that
part, because no hounds hunt it enough. He says,
that all the foxes in Lord Elcho’s country come
there to be quiet. Be that as it may, the last time