36 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 
and leaves. A space of four or five inches all about the six sides of 
the box packed with insulating material will retain the heat sufficiently 
and will absorb dampness. In some cases, a light bedding of earth, 
leaves, seaweed or marshgrass is given in the winter. 
It is usual to place pens side by side on both sides 
Arrangement of of an alley about six or eight feet wide,* the fences 
Pens and Kennels : ae 
at the ends of the alley being an additional safeguard 
against escape. The dog (or male) pen, according to one plan, consists 
of one end of the common pen and the male is segregated by simply 
closing the door. According to another plan, the pen for the male is 
several feet distant and segregation is effected by simply closing the 
slide door in the passageway. The kennel provided for the dog fox 
may be a box or barrel with a chute entrance. The dog pen is becom- 
ing less used year by year. It should be constructed near the other 
pen and arrangements should be made so that the pairs can be separated 
quietly. No confusion or excitement whatever in effecting a separation 
of the male and female at this critical period should be permitted. 
The food of foxes in the wild state does not consist wholly 
Food and of flesh as many suppose; for, to a certain extent, the fox 
Feeding 5 : J : 
is omnivorous, and will eat grass and berries. If flesh only 
were ted to a ranch fox the probability is that, after a time, digestion 
would be greatly impaired and the whole intestinal tract would be- 
come infested with worms. 
The food varies so much in each locality that it is impossible to 
do more than state the principles which should govern the feeding of 
foxes. The very fact that success is achieved with so many kinds of 
dieting proves that the fox, like the dog, can live well on almost any 
kind of food. A prospectus of a ranch at Copper River, Alaska, says 
that the pelts of their foxes have a magnificent sheen because the 
animals are fed on oily salmon. Ontario ranchers have many excuses 
to hunt rabbits and groundhogs, because they are ‘natural’ food for 
the foxes. J. Beetz of Piastre Baie, Que., finds fish and lobster good, and 
his success in catching foxes is largely due to the fact that they come 
down from the interior each winter to seek just such food on the shore 
of the St. Lawrence river. And who could tell an old Prince Edward 
Island rancher how to feed his foxes? ‘The best in the house is none 
too good,’ he says, and he will feed them almost everything he would 
*See diagram facing this page. 
