420 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



ents, as usual with all members of the dog 

 family, are devoted to their young and care for 

 them with the utmost solicitude. 



Like other members of the tribe, they are 

 omnivorous and feed upon mice, squirrels, rab- 

 bits, birds, and large insects, in addition to 

 acorns or other nuts and fruits of all kinds. 

 In Lower California they are very common 

 about the date-palm orchards, which they visit 

 nightly for fallen fruit. They also make noc- 

 turnal visits to poultry yards. 



In some parts of the West they are called 

 ''tree foxes," because when pursued by dogs 

 they often climb into the tops of small branch- 

 ing trees. 



On one occasion in Arizona I saw a gray fox 

 standing in the top of a large, leaning mesquite 

 tree, about thirty feet from the ground, quietly 

 gazing in various directions, as though he had 

 chosen this as a lookout point. As soon as he 

 saw me he came down at a run and swiftly 

 disappeared. 



In the same region I found a den in the hol- 

 low base of an old live-oak containing three 

 young only a few days old. The mother was 

 shot as she sprang from the hole on my ap- 

 proach and the young taken to camp. There 

 the skin of the old fox, well wrapped in paper, 

 was placed on the ground at one side of the 

 tent, and an open hunting bag containing the 

 young placed on the opposite side, about ten 

 feet away. On returning an hour later, I was 

 amazed to find that all three of the young, so 

 small they could crawl only with the utmost 

 difficulty, and totally blind, had crossed the tent 

 and managed to work their way through the 

 paper to tlie skin of their mother, thus show- 

 ing that the acute sense of smell in these_ foxes 

 becomes of service to them at a surprisingly 

 early age. 



DESERT FOX (Vulpes macrotis and its 



subspecies) 



A small fox, akin to the kit fox or swift of 

 the western plains, frequents the arid cactus- 

 grown desert region of the Southwest. It is 

 found from the soutliern parts of New Mex- 

 ico, Arizona, and California south into the ad- 

 jacent parts of Mexico. The desert fox is a 

 beautiful species, slender in form, and extra- 

 ordinarily quick and graceful in its movements, 

 but so generally nocturnal in habits as to be 

 rarely seen by the desert traveler. On the rare 

 occasions when one is encountered abroad by 

 day, if it thinks itself unobserved by the trav- 

 eler it usually flattens itself on the ground be- 

 side any small object which breaks the surface, 

 and thus obscured will permit a horseman to 

 ride within a few rods without moving. If the 

 traveler indicates by any action that he has 

 seen it, the fox darts away at extraordinary 

 speed, running with a smooth, floating motion 

 which seems as effortless as that of a drifting 

 thistledown before a breeze. 



The desert fox digs a burrow, with several 

 entrances, in a small mound, or at times on an 

 open flat, and there rears four or five young 

 each year. Its main food consists of kangaroo 



rats, pocket mice, small ground-squirrels, and 

 a variety of other small desert mammals. In 

 early morning fox tracks, about the size of 

 those of a house-cat, may be seen along sandy 

 arroyos and similar places where these small 

 carnivores have wandered in search of prey. 



Like the kit, the desert fox has little of the 

 sophisticated mental ability of the red fox and 

 falls an easy prey to the trapper. It is no- 

 where numerous and occupies such a thinly in- 

 habited region that there is little danger of its 

 numbers greatly decreasing in the near future. 



BADGER (Taxidea taxus and its sub- 

 species) 



The favorite home of the badger is on 

 grassy, brush-grown plains, where there is an 

 abundance of mice, pocket gophers, ground- 

 squirrels, prairie-dogs, or other small mam- 

 mals. There it wanders far and wide at night 

 searching for the burrows of the small ro- 

 dents, which are its chief prey. When its 

 acute sense of smell announces that a burrow 

 is occupied, it sets to work with sharp claws 

 and powerful fore legs and digs down to the 

 terrified inmate in an amazingly short time. 



The trail of a badger for a single night is 

 often marked by hole after hole, each with a 

 mound of fresh earth containing the tracks of 

 the marauder. As a consequence, if several of 

 these animals are in the neighborhood, their 

 burrows, 6 or 8 inches in diameter, soon be- 

 come so numerous that it is dangerous to ride 

 rapidly through their haunts on horseback. 



Although a member of the weasel family, 

 the badger is so slow-footed that when it is 

 occasionally found abroad by day a man on 

 foot can easily overtake it. When brought to 

 bay, it charges man or dog and tights with 

 such vicious power and desperation that noth- 

 ing of its own size can overcome it. It appears 

 to have a morose and savage nature, lacking 

 the spice of vivacity or playfulness which ap- 

 pears in many of its relatives. 



Although commonly found living by Itself 

 in a den, it is often found moving about by 

 day in pairs, indicating the proliability that it 

 may mate permanently. In the northern part 

 of its range it hibernates during winter, but 

 in the south remains active throughout the 

 year. Its shy and retiring character is evi- 

 denced liy the little information we have con- 

 cerning its family life. The badger is so de- 

 structive to rodents that its services are of 

 great value to the farmer. Regardless of this, 

 where encountered it is almost invariably 

 killed. As a consequence, the increasing occu- 

 pation of its territory must result in its steady 

 decrease in numliers and final extermination. 



The American badger is a close relative of 

 the well-known badger occupying the British 

 Isles and other northern parts of the Old 

 World. It is a low, broad, short-legged, pow- 

 erfully built animal of such wide distribution 

 that it has developed several geographic races. 

 Its range originally extended from about 58 

 degrees of latitude, on the Peace River, in 



