140 THE LIFE OF A FOX.

the hounds found me there, they had before
drawn all the other woods, and only found one
fox, and that a mangy one. I was disturbed first
by hearing old Will cheering his hounds, as if he
had just seen a fox, giving his cheer thus, “ Hooi-
here, here, here!” which, in any other country,
would pass for a view-halloo,

After listening and expecting to hear the
hounds in full cry, I found it was only his cus-
tomary cry in drawing a whin covert, parti-
cularly when he wished his hounds to get into
it. I noticed that they did not attend to the
halloo so readily when a fox was really seen.
Notwithstanding this, they understood their
huritsman’s system well enough to make it no
safe thing to be hunted by them. I soon left
the covert, and when they had pursued me
for some miles, and were getting nearer to
me, they suddenly came to a check; on look-
ing back, I saw the huntsman almost imme-
diately take them away beyond the next large.
field, rather to the left of where my line was

hitherto pointing; I suppose either because there