512 Remarks on the Habits 



appetite with such greediness (or had, perhaps, also been so 

 much excited by the combat), that the gamekeeper could ap- 

 proach it in the open field, and in the fur of the robber obtain 

 an equivalent for the torn skin of the fox which had been 

 caught." This occurred about half an English mile from a 

 village called Rossbach, in the Untermainkreis of Bavaria. 



There is a most astonishing power of induction brought into 

 operation, when a fox devours an animal caught in a trap set 

 for the fox. The truth of the circumstance does not solely 

 rest on the authority of the case just mentioned ; for, whenever 

 a cat is tempted by the bait, and caught in a fox trap, Renard 

 is at hand to devour the bait and the cat too, and fearlessly 

 approaches an instrument which the fox must know cannot 

 then do it any harm. Let us compare with this boldness the 

 incredible caution with which the animal proceeds when 

 tempted by the bait in a set trap. Dietrich a us dem Winkell 

 had once the good fortune of observing, on a w r inter evening, a 

 fox, which for many preceding days had been allured with 

 loose baits to the spot where the trap was set for it. The ob- 

 server sat waiting for a wild boar, when the fox, pressed by 

 hunger, unexpectedly came trotting up before it was dark. 

 Eagerly, and without the least suspicion, it took up the more 

 distant loose baits, and, as often as it ate one, it sat comfortably 

 down, wagging its brush. The nearer it approached the trap, 

 the longer did it hesitate to take the baits, the oftener did it 

 make the tour round the catching-place. When arrived near 

 the trap, it squatted down and eyed the bait for ten minutes 

 at least; whereupon it ran three or four times round the trap; 

 then it stretched out one of its fore paws after the bait, but did 

 not touch it ; again a pause, during which the fox stared im- 

 movably at the bait. At last, as if in despair, the animal made 

 a rush, and was caught by the neck. (Handbuch, p. 91.) 



Some of the points in the habits of the fox which must be 

 regarded as uncertain refer to the peculiar uses which he is 

 said to make of his urine. It is pretended that the fox, when 

 baited with dogs, has been seen to wet his brush with his urine, 

 and by swinging it over the face of the dog, to blind his enemy 

 for a short time, and to make him start back with a howl. I 

 have been assured by sportsmen that they have witnessed the 

 circumstance, to which already the ancient poem, Reynaert de 

 Vos, alludes, which, by the by, contains many striking proofs 

 that the author was well acquainted with the habits of the fox ; 

 but the movements of the animal are so extremely rapid on 

 such occasions, that I doubt whether anything certain can e 

 known about this matter. The feline animals, when they fly, 

 certainly spurt their urine against their pursuer ; but in them 



