Many a fox family spends the entire summer in the cornfield, and no man
is the wiser; but if any should discover the secret, it will be the
gamekeeper. Only a giant could see, from the ground, the spot where,
in a level cornfield, a family of cubs is taking shelter; the keeper's
plan is to climb into a tree, so that his eyes may sweep over acre upon
acre at a glance, and spy out the foxes. Even if the nearest tree be
a mile or more distant from the playground and refectory of the cubs,
his trusty "spy-glass" will reveal the secret--and while he keeps his
place in the look-out tree he may signal to a companion, and point the
way to the family's eviction. From the top of a tree on the edge of a
wood we have found the secret place of a vixen in a field of rank rye;
and when we came to the spot, where a large patch of the rye had been
rolled flat, we could have filled a wheelbarrow with the remains of
partridges, pheasants, rabbits, and hares.
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