ABSTRACT
THE fox has yet another stratagem when it is afflicted with hunger: it plays a mock game with a hare and then, all of a sudden, clutches and devours it unless, as happens quite frequently, the hare saves its life by flight. Sometimes it even eludes hounds by barking and pretending to be a dog, but a surer method is by hanging from a branch to make the pack go astray when they lose its trail. It often baffles the hunter and his hounds by coming among a herd of goats, seizing upon one of them, and leaping on its back. The goat sets off at speed because of its hateful rider, and so the fox contrives a quicker escape, for the other goats follow, and the huntsman, afraid of throwing them into confusion, calls back his dogs in case a number of goats should be killed. If it is caught in a trap, the fox has on occasion even bitten off its paw in order to get free. Should no escape route lie open, it simulates death, and the moment it is lifted clear of the snare, it bolts away. Again, when a dog is hard on its heels, has just overtaken it, and is straining to grasp it, the fox whisks its shaggy brush across its pursuer’s face, and so frustrates the other animal till it can enter its shady haunts in the forest. 1
