510 flemarks on the Habits 



In this position, foxes that were not really killed have often 

 been revived, after having been carried for miles, and have 

 released themselves by biting; nay, they have effected their 

 escape with their hind legs joined in the manner indicated, 

 when no gun or dog was at hand.* On one of these occa- 

 sions, an old knowing gamekeeper scolded the man who had 

 beaten the fox on its snout, for not having seen the animal 

 convulsively twisting its brush, which, he said, was a symptom 

 that always preceded the fox's death. M. de Wildungen 

 even relates a case in which a fox fell a biting when a portion 

 of it had already been skinned; but it is needless to say that 

 in this case the fox did as little simulate death as in those of 

 more frequent occurrence, where foxes are wounded in such 

 a manner that they lie for some time apparently lifeless, and 

 at once run away as quickly as if nothing had happened to 

 them. 



I shall now advert to different other points in the history 

 of the fox, which either are erroneous, or were hitherto still 

 considered as uncertain. 



A question has been discussed in our journals with some 

 warmth, about the beginning of this year ; viz. whether the fox 

 preys on* its own species, and, more especially, whether there 

 are well-established examples of foxes having killed foxes, 

 with a view of procuring food. It is certain that one third, 

 on an average, of the foxes caught in iron traps are found 

 missing in the morning, only one of the legs being left in the 

 trap. The opinion hitherto generally received was, that the fox, 

 when caught by a leg, bites it off, if he has sufficient time for 

 so doing, and thus makes his escape. This view has lately 

 been contested by a few observers, who wished to prove that 

 the animal was, in the like cases, generally devoured by its 

 congeners. 



As to the general question, whether the fox will eat fox 

 flesh, there is no doubt that it must be answered in the af- 

 firmative. Like all the -other carnivorous or omnivorous 

 quadrupeds, hunger may bring it to devour the carcasses of its 

 own species, or to kill individuals of it, if no other food can 

 be had ; but, in common cases, it will only do so when pressed 

 by hunger; for, in the districts where the fox is skinned on the 

 spot where it is killed, I have often seen the carcasses of the 

 animal untouched till they were decomposed. On the other 

 hand, there are instances on record, that a number of foxes 

 have killed and devoured one of their species, even when well 



* The possibility of a fox escaping under these circumstances will be 

 readily credited by any one who has seen a rabbit, with its hind legs tied 

 together, turned out before a young spaniel. — Ed. 



