Prairie Red-fox 745 



with a deeper, coarser bark. Both show a restlessness and a 

 good deal of excitement. 



The period of gestation is 51 days without 12 hours' 

 variation; of this I am assured by both breeders. 



The wild dog Fox is a model father and faithfully helps to 

 provide for the young, but in captivity he is not needed, and 

 it is best to keep the mother in the breeding pen by herself. 

 The quieter she is the better. The young should not be 

 approached, much less handled. Strangers should be for- 

 bidden the range till the young are able to run. If disturbed 

 or frightened the mother is liable to carry the young about in 

 her mouth, seeking a safer place for them, till they are worried 

 to death. 



The young number from 3 to 9; 6 or 7 are the usual litter. 

 They are born blind; their eyes open about the seventh or 

 eighth day. When they are a month old they begin to come 

 out and play together like kittens. They are now considered 

 past the critical period. They begin to eat solid food, and, 

 when three months old, the mother weans them, and they may 

 be taken away. At midsummer they are half grown, by 

 winter apparently full grown, and in the following February or 

 March, while yet less than a year old, they also breed. The 

 young are much w'ilder than the old ones at first, but good 

 management soon convinces them that all their fears are ill- 

 founded, and they soon get tame and gentle. 



Foxes are much less quarrelsome than most carnivores. 

 Norton has lost only 2 through fighting. Both were killed by 

 an abnormally vicious old dog Fox that bullied the others. 

 Such instances are rare, and a Fox of that temper should be 

 considered a freak, and not allowed to breed. 



Every effort should be made to 'gentle' the Foxes. First, 

 by selecting the most docile to breed from; second, by giving 

 them no cause for alarm. 



Cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Clean drinking 

 water and clean pens are essential. The Foxes are naturally 

 clean. They do not bury their dung with cat-like scrupulous- 

 ness, but they leave it at one end of the run. Stevens's pens, 



