Prairie Red-fox 713 



The habits of the EngHsh Fox affirm this. All the keepers 

 and hunters that I have consulted believe that a Fox rarely 

 goes more than 4 or 5 miles from home, except when hunted. 



But in the winter it roams over an extent of country 

 probably two or three times as large as its summer range. A 

 black Fox that lived on the 'Big Plain,' Manitoba, was seen 

 about Carberry as far north as Petrel, 9 miles, and south to the 

 Sandhills, 4 miles. There is no certainty that it was the same 

 Fox, but when one was killed at Petrel it also disappeared at 

 Carberry, and if it had lived only about Carberry it would 

 have been seen oftener. This seems to give it a winter range 

 of at least a dozen miles in diameter. 



Since the relations of mates, or of the young to the parents, socia- 

 are excluded in discussing sociability, we must consider the 

 Fox but slightly a sociable animal. The only detailed cases 

 I have of Foxes working together, refer to two (probably 

 mates) that were combining in a hunt. 



This animal is not much given to social amusements, but amuse- 



. MENTS 



Norton and Stevens both tell me that on their fur farms m 

 Maine it is a common thing for the Foxes to gather on moon- 

 light nights and chase each other about with most uproarious 

 barking and churring that do not seem to express anything 

 but good-will and hilarity. 



This species uses the smell-telephone much less, I think, voice 

 than the Wolf does. (See Wolf.) Its principal method of in- 

 tercommunication is doubtless by the voice. It has a short 

 bark follov(/ed by a little squall like ' yap-yurr.' That is the 

 sound oftenest uttered, but it has also a long yell and two or 

 three different yowls or screeches as well as softer churr-churrs 

 that doubtless have different meanings to its kind. The voice 

 of the male is notably heavier and coarser than that of his 

 mate. 



In the pairing season the she Fox utters a very character- 

 istic shrill squall. The reply of the male is usually two or 



