to THE FOX 



persistent mouse-hunters. On moorlands and hill pastures there 

 is no greater benefactor to the grazier than the weasel, and to the 

 forester its services are invaluable; while to the gardener and 

 even the farmer in woodland districts, with a reservation in respect 

 of incursions into poultry yards, the little animal is extremely useful, 

 for " neither mouse nor rat nor mole can carry on their projects 

 with impunity while the weasel stands sentinel " (Waterton). 



DESTRUCTIVE 



Fox (Canis vulpes or Vulpes vulgaris) Fig. 8. This (only wild 

 representative of the Canidae left in the British Islands) is unques- 

 tionably an unmitigated pest and nuisance in the mountain dis- 

 tricts of northern Britain where no fox-hunting is practicable ; 

 hence only the forester and gardener has use for the animal in 

 such locations, the hares, rabbits, rats, mice, and moles destroyed 



FIG. 8. THE Fox. 



being considerable. In wild districts weakly sheep, lambs, ptar- 

 migan, grouse, wild fowl generally, and even young roe, as well 

 as those just named, fall a prey to the fox. In hunting localities 

 foxes feed largely on leverets and rabbits (unearthing young in the 

 " nest "), on brooding pheasants and partridges, even their eggs, 

 and among young coop-reared pheasants makes fearful havoc. In 

 the poultry yard the fox is pre-eminently the worst enemy, and, 

 though nocturnal in habits, will carry off the unwary duck or hen 

 in broad daylight during the season his family are dependent on him, 

 often clearing a whole parish of out-sitting ducks and hens. 



But the fox feeds upon rats, mice (common, long-tailed and 

 short-tailed), and worms, snails, frogs and beetles, so that the work 



