1 MARCH 1957, Page 30

A BARKING Fox

After I had retired to bed, perhaps because I had supped too well, I found it difficult to sleep, hearing first a bullock lowing and then two serenading cats somewhere lower down the village. A year or two ago, when I was similarly afflicted, I heard a vixen calling in the gully across the road. The unearthly sound made my hackles rise, for I was certain some foul deed was being done. On this occasion, however, I was almost dozing when I heard thp bark of a dog fox. He repeated it several times as he moved away from the village and I waited to hear if a vixen had any answer to make, but either there wasn't a vixen about, or she found it unnecessary to respond. Per- haps it was because my mind was so occupied that I had a dream that went on and on. In this dream I walked after a fox that stopped and encouraged me to hurry after it in the hope of capturing it but, as so often happens in dreams, I never achieved my object. The fox stopped and I walked on until the postman rang the bell and brought .me abruptly back !