Prairie Red-fox 743 



sometimes the other. This is put across the lane from door 

 to door when it is intended to change an animal from one 

 cage to another. At A it is shown in position to allow of 

 the Fox being driven from the pen. By this means a Fox 

 can be transferred from any one pen to any other without 

 handling. 



Most beginners will ask themselves — or other competent food 

 authority — what does the Fox feed on in a state of nature, and 

 then decide that that is his proper food in captivity. Curiously, 

 and happily, this decision is not backed by experience. Those 

 who feed the Foxes on fat pullets, Rabbits, and Mice will soon 

 find their charges a lot of worm-eaten dyspeptics. A much better 

 answer is given by Norton and endorsed by Stevens, "Feed 

 your Foxes the same as your dogs." Bread, table scraps and 

 a very little meat, is their diet on the farms. Norton feeds 

 butcher's scraps, offal of animals, and in the winter he often 

 gives them the flesh of a horse, taking great care that it be not 

 one that died of disease. 



Stevens feeds his chiefly a cake made of the following 

 recipe: One quart sour milk, ij teaspoons of soda, enough 

 corn-meal or "Daisy flour" to make it stiff, spread half an 

 inch thick on pans, and bake. No sugar, salt, or eggs are 

 needed. This will keep for two weeks, and is eagerly eaten 

 by the Foxes. The young ones that I saw came running and 

 shouldering like a lot of little pigs to get at it in the trough 

 when the evening meal was announced by a familiar whistle. 

 A piece 2 by 3 inches makes a meal, and they get two meals 

 a day — morning and night. Each Fox also gets daily a pint 

 of skim milk, and once a week about half a pound of raw 

 meat. They are extremely partial to Woodchuck. One fat 

 Woodchuck is enough to make a week's allowance for eight 

 Foxes. 



Norton occasionally shoots a crow and throws it in. The 

 Foxes do not touch it for two or three days, then, as it gets gamy, 

 they devour it with relish. Neither farmer has tried dog- 

 biscuits. If a Fox secures more food than he can eat, he buries 



