710 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



That this is not an overestimate will appear on setting 

 the facts side by side with those supplied in the 'Old Country.' 



After consulting many of my hunting friends, I learn that 

 about 11,000 Foxes are killed each year before the hounds in 

 Great Britain; while the destruction by keepers, etc., at least 

 doubles the number destroyed annually on the 80,000 square 

 miles of the British mainland, and would argue a vulpine 

 population in the autumn of fully 40,000, to compare with the 

 5,000 that I give as a conservative estimate of the Foxes on 

 Manitoba's 74,000 square miles. 



Most observers testify that Foxes are growing less numer- 

 ous in the Province. This is generally traced directly to the 

 increase of Coyotes; which does not necessarily mean actual 

 conflict of the two, but that the changing conditions have set 

 up new problems of life which the Coyotes have been better 

 able to solve. 



The rate of increase among the Blue-foxes of St. George 

 Island, Bering Sea, will help us to gauge the increase of Red- 

 foxes. This island, about 36 square miles, has about 270 pairs 

 of foxes, and, although they are fed and protected and the 

 species has 5 to 12 in a litter, not more than 400 to 500 can 

 be marketed each year without reducing the stock. - 



The fur returns (given later) show an annual catch of 

 74,000 Red-foxes with marketable coats. Considering other 

 destruction and their rate of increase, this, I take it, assures a 

 wild stock of at least 500,000, possibly 1,000,000, on the 

 range covered by the Red-fox group. 



INDIVID- f he home-locality of the indi\idual Fox is, I think, not 



UAL . ■' ... 



RANGE more than 5 miles across. Ordinarily, it does not range so 



far, but, under unusual stress of famine, will cover even a larger 



area. 



The evidence is — that when pursued by dogs the Fox 



usually circles at a radius of 2 or 3 miles, differing, of course, 



with the character of the country; also that a number of well- 



'Scc James Judge on Blue-foxes of the Priljilof Islands' Rep. Am. Breeders' 

 Assoc, Vol. V, 1909, p. 338. 



