The fox is a common beast and therefore I need not tell of his making and there be but few gentlemen that have not seen some. He hath many such conditions as the wolf, for the vixen of the fox bears as long as the bitch of the wolf bears her whelps, sometimes more sometimes less, save that the vixen fox whelpeth under the earth deeper than doth the bitch of the wolf. The vixen of the fox is a saute[93] (in heat) once in the year. She has a venomous biting like a wolf and their life is no longer than a wolf's life. With great trouble men can take a fox, especially the vixen when she is with whelps, for when she is with whelps and is heavy, she always keeps near her hole, _for sometimes she whelpeth in a false hole and sometimes in great burrows and sometimes in hollow trees, and therefore she draweth always near her burrow_, and if she hears anything anon she goeth therein before the hounds can get to her. She is a false beast and as malicious as a wolf. [93] The term used by Turbervile (p. 188) is "goeth a clicqueting." The hunting for a fox is fair for the _good cry of_ the hounds[94] that follow him so nigh and with so good a will. Always they scent of him, for he flies through the thick wood and also he stinketh evermore. And he will scarcely leave a covert when he is therein, he taketh not to the plain (open) country for he trusteth not in his running neither in his defence, for he is too feeble, and if he does, it is because he is (forced to) by the strength of men and hounds. And he will always hold to covert, and if he can only find a briar to cover himself with, he will cover himself with that. When he sees that he cannot last, then he goeth to earth the nearest he can find which he knoweth well and then men may dig him out and take him, if it is easy digging, but not among the rocks.[95] If greyhounds _give him many touches and overset him_, his last remedy, if he is in an open country, will be that he vishiteth gladly (the act of voiding excrements) so that the greyhounds should leave him for the stink of the dirt, and also for the fear that he hath. [94] G. de F., p. 72, says, "because the hounds hunt him closely."