THE FOX AT THE WINDOW

Evening Star, Issue 21216, 24 September 1932, Page 5

THE FOX AT THE WINDOW

The other day someone was sittingquietly reading in a country drawing room when a violent scratching was heard at the window. It seemed natural to think that one of the terriers wanted to get in, and a stern voice called to it to behave. One of the French windows to the verandah was half-open, so why claw frantically at a shut one? , ' ...

Suddenly a small, panting fox came in, looked round the room, and jumped on to the sofa.

A moment later one of the terriers ran in, and poor Mr Fox leaped on to a large picture frame, whence he fell, smashing a bowl in his descent. Hurriedly was the window shut, the terrier caught, and the fox left alone to recover from his fright. Not long afterwards hounds and horses burst into the garden, in full cry after a larger and darker fox. Afterwards the huntsmen said that they could not think what had happened to the little light-coloured fox which had given them such a long run and disappeared just before they found the big dark fellow, who was Quite fresh-. ■ -, The little one’s host opened the window as soon as the butchers had gone, but the fox was too weary to go. For three hours it rested on the floor in an evident state of exhaustion, not troubled by the presence of human beings, as though trusting in tho sacred laws of hospitality. Then, after eating some raw meat, it walked quietly out of tho window and trotted away.

This true story, which appeared in ‘The Times,’ recalls another which partly explains the first. Many years ago a man entering a narrow winding road through a wood

at noon heard hounds in full cry to windward. He hid, thinking it a good place to watch, and sure enough he soon saw a fox jagging wearily along as though at the end of his strength. Suddenly the fox was joined by a little vixen, quite fresh. The two went down the roadway side by side for a bit, and then the vixen returned and trotted to and_ fro across their line, afterwards going back to the place where she had left her mate, and then bounding away in the opposite while he crawled, down a hedgerow.

In a few minutes the hounds cams up, and most of them went _ straight on the fresh scent. Three wiser ones hesitated,, but finally joined the others. Evidently there is some chivalry at a hunt, after all—with the fox!

No doubt the big dark fox hunted through a garden the other day was deliberately leading the hounds away from its exhausted mate, who had sheltered in a drawing room.