146 THER LIFE OF A FOX.

for I have sometimes met one in my rambles.
Their superior size may be accounted for as
follows: having been born or bred in the whole-
some air upon the mountains, where food, such
as rabbits, is probably scarce, they find and
fatten upon sheep which from various accidents
die there. Having once got a taste for such
food, it is not surprising that they will take a
lamb, or attack an old one which has fallen
through illness or neglect. Anxious as I am
to protect my own race, I cannot blame the
shepherds for waging war against the transgres-
sors; as it is known that when once a fox has
taken to such a habit he seldom gives it up
but with his life. Felons are to be found every
where; but, as to ourselves, the following facts
will prove that the generality of us are not
guilty of charges frequently laid upon us. On
the first day of February last, being the last
day of pheasant shooting, I was lying in a thick
plantation, in the middle of a park, at Lady
Kirk, on the other side of the Tweed, and which

covered a space of ground not more than a