1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 283 



General habits. Alert, cautious, cunning, swift, and quick to take 

 alarm, these graceful and beautiful animals generally hold their 

 own, even among settlements and where hunting and trapping is 

 prevalent. They live largely in the open where their speed saves 

 them from most enemies except men and dogs, and even from these 

 their intelligence and cunning usually saves them. To a great extent 

 they occupy the areas where coyotes are not common, either because 

 these are rival hunters of mice and small game, or because they are 

 old-time enemies with the size advantage all in favor of the coyote. 

 Apparently there is little difference in speed of the two, but the 

 big brush of the fox gives him a decided advantage in turning and 

 dodging. It is a noticeable fact that in the range of coyotes red 

 foxes live and breed mainly among or near rocks where they find 

 safe retreats for their dens and young, while in the Eastern States 

 they live mainly in earth burrows. Otherwise the habits of red 

 foxes are much the same across the continent. 



Stealthy hunters of small game, they pounce upon mice, chip- 

 munks, ground squirrels, birds, and rabbits, or catch them in quick 

 runs and sudden turns. The great brush of a tail is not only orna- 

 mental, but extremely useful in pursuit of prey as well as flight from 

 enemies. Few animals are so quick and agile or so light and graceful 

 in motion. 



They are more often heard than seen, their short, sharp little 

 bark, like that of some small dog but more rapid and prolonged, 

 being heard in the evening or morning. Usually the long lines of 

 delicate tracks in the snow, the prints of the narrow, furry feet in 

 dusty trails, or the pungent almost musky odor greeting one's nostrils 

 in the dewy morning, furnish the only evidence that a fox has passed 

 along in the night. 



Breeding habits. A litter of red foxes usually numbers 5 to 9, 

 born in April or May in eastern localities. There seem to be no 

 Oregon records of breeding. The young are raised in carefully 

 hidden dens under rocks or in holes dug under or near a rocky 

 cover. 



Food habits. To their staple diet of mice, gophers, ground squir- 

 rels, chipmunks, rabbits^ and other small game, are added, in their 

 seasons, birds, birds' eggs, poultry, insects^ and many berries and 

 fruits. Meadow mice usually furnish a large item of their food, but 

 whatever small game is most abundant and most easily captured 

 seems to predominate in the animal's food. Their droppings scat- 

 tered along the trails furnish a good index to their food, and hair, 

 bones, teeth, feathers, and often the skins and seeds of fruit can be 

 recognized in the old dry pellets. Their well-known fondness for 

 poultry often gives them a bad reputation among the farmers, and a 

 trail of scattered feathers is generally attributed to the work of a fox. 



Economic status. Red foxes serve as an effective check on over- 

 abundance of mice and small rodents, but they also destroy much 

 small game and the eggs of game and song birds, poultry, and prob- 

 ably some young fawns and lambs. They are not sufficiently abun- 

 dant or generally distributed to do serious damage, and their value 

 as fur bearers probably adds to the wealth of trappers about as 

 much as their depredations take from the resources of the farmers. 

 On the other hand their destruction of rodents may increase the 



