240 Short Communications: — 



Art. VIII. Short Communications. 



The Fox and the Dog have been known to feed upon Fish. — 

 That foxes feed on fish is, I believe, a fact hitherto unknown 

 to naturalists ; at least, speaking for myself, during a life of 

 many years devoted to the study of natural history, I have 

 never heard of it. That it was not impossible, however, I 

 should never have doubted, from a curious corroboration of 

 its possibility, which happened more than once under my own 

 observation. I occasionally took out with me in a boat, when 

 fishing, a small terrier of the Scotch breed. One day, having 

 caught three or four dace, after some minutes I turned round 

 to examine them, when, lo ! they had disappeared ; and I 

 could in no way discover the cause. Shortly I caught another, 

 and threw it down, when, to my great surprise, the dog quietly 

 took it up, and (after very composedly craunching its bones) 

 swallowed it with apparent satisfaction, and then looked up 

 with a hungry eye, as if to request a farther supply. As far 

 as I can recollect, the dog ate about half a dozen before any 

 symptoms of " hold, enough, " were manifested. 



Now for the fox ; whose case, though it depends upon cir- 

 cumstantial rather than positive evidence, I have no hesitation 

 in believing to be perfectly true. In the course of last 

 autumn, I believe, in October or November, a gentleman's 

 keeper in my parish, in passing a pond very early, after a 

 moonlight night, found upon the bank the remains of a pike 

 which had weighed about 5 lbs. The flesh was consumed, 

 with the exception of what adhered to the head and tail. 

 The fish he was well acquainted with, having often noticed it 

 before, and during the preceding summer had as often, in vain, 

 endeavoured to take it by night lines, &c. Of course, his 

 first thought was, " how got it there, so strangely out of its 

 element?" A poacher would certainly not have left it. Fishing 

 eagles had never been seen or heard of in this part of the 

 country ; and otters had long been an extinct race in the 

 neighbourhood. But, on closely examining the mud and soil, 

 he soon discovered a clue to solve the mystery ; the adjacent 

 parts being padded with footmarks, which his long and prac- 

 tical experience convinced him were those of a fox. It is 

 probable, too, that, like himself, the fox had long had an eye 

 to this well-fed pike, as it then occurred to him, that he had 

 often before seen similar footmarks about the pit side banks. 

 To have witnessed the capture would have been an interesting 

 scene indeed. It is most likely that the wily animal, on ex- 

 amining the water, discovered the pike near the surface, 

 prowling about for food, and, availing himself of its approach- 



