220 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



Each compartment should contain a small 

 house or shelter-box, for, although the foxes 

 often dig natural dens in the ground, they usu- 

 ally accustom themselves readily to artificial 

 shelters. A common form of these is much like 

 a dog-kennel and about the same size. They 

 are ordinarily made four or five feet square 

 and two or three feet high, with an entrance 

 about six inches square. No nesting material 

 is needed inside the boxes, as the old foxes 

 either do without or provide themselves from 

 refuse in their enclosure. 



Foxes easy to keep. The mere keeping of 

 foxes in confinement is a simple matter. They 

 do not, as a rule, however, become very tame, 

 even after several generations. They seem 

 contented and happy in their cages, and rarely 

 make determined efforts to escape. Several 

 cases are recorded where captive silver foxes, 

 having climbed out of their enclosures in win- 

 ter, when high drifts of snow gave them a 

 chance to reach the top of the fence, have re- 

 turned voluntarily to their home. 



Although in general suspicious of mankind 

 and inclined all their lives to snap at or bite 



