and Economy of the Fox, "511 



provided with other, and even choice, food. A case of this 

 nature occurred two years ago in Silesia, where a farmer kept 

 in a kennel nine young foxes, the cubs from two burrows. 

 One morning the weakest, that had been often bitten by the 

 others during the preceding days, was missing, only the bones 

 and scraps of the skin being left. Another case was ob- 

 served on the 28th of February last, when M. Kriiger of 

 Hohenlinden, in Prussia, wounded a fox, which he traced the 

 following morning to a spot where the state of its remains 

 proved that it had been no doubt killed and devoured by 

 its congeners. 



With reference to legs of foxes found in traps, there have 

 been many authentic facts brought forward, which prove that 

 the fox often contrives to make its escape from the trap by 

 sacrificing one of its extremities. Several have been found in 

 the morning that were only yet attached to the leg engaged in 

 the trap by a sinew ; and many three-legged ones have been 

 traced from the trap and caught with dogs. As the bone of 

 the leg is often broken by the violent meeting of the bow-pieces 

 (and in such cases only the animal can probably be freed 

 through its own exertions), it may get loose either by twisting 

 itself about, or by the more expeditious means of gnawing 

 through the flesh and sinews. That it is resolute enough to 

 do so, will become sufficiently clear from the following ana- 

 logous facts : — In 1829 (as stated by a well-known sportsman, 

 signed K., in No. 80., 1837, of the Berlinische Nachrichten), 

 a fox was wounded with a rifle bullet in such a manner that 

 its intestine prolapsed through the integuments, and impeded 

 its flight by becoming repeatedly entangled in the bushes. As 

 often as this happened, the fox turned round with fury and 

 liberated itself with its teeth ; till the dogs coming up, it was 

 caught, when almost nothing of the intestine was found re- 

 maining in the abdominal cavity. A similar instance is 

 related by Dietrich aus dem Winkell, who broke one of the 

 fore legs of a fox with a rifle bullet close under the shoulder. 

 The fox being hampered and annoyed by the leg dangling 

 about its head, turned angrily round and bit it off. 



However, there is one observation on record which settles 

 the point that caught foxes are sometimes devoured by their 

 own species, as no one would question the authority of so 

 accurate an observer and reporter as Dietrich aus dem Win- 

 kell, who relates the following fact in his excellent Handbuch 

 fur Jciger und Jagdberechtigte : — In the winter of 1816, one of 

 my gamekeepers shot a fox in the act of devouring another 

 which had been entrapped during the night. This happened 



about eight o'clock in the morning; and the fox satisfied its 



p p 4, 



