No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 491 



F. Kinney stated that he had examined the stomachs of 

 eighty-five foxes, and found only two quail, one woodcock 

 and one partridge. Mice, frogs, rabbits, berries and frozen 

 apples were among the food material found. Mr. H. W. 

 Tinkham of Touisset says that in his hunts this year he has 

 observed only one case where a bird had been killed by a 

 fox ; the bird was a crow. Of thirteen fox stomachs he 

 examined, only two showed any remains of birds ; and out 

 of ninety fox excrements, only one showed birds' remains. 

 The food evidently consisted mainly of mice and other small 

 mammals.* 



This, however, is only negative evidence. There is con- 

 vincing, positive evidence of the destructiveness of the fox 

 to offer. Mr. C. L. Perkins of Newburyport writes : 

 " Have made it a practice, when skinning foxes, to open 

 the stomach, and have found, in seasons of bare ground, 

 moles, field-mice, etc. ; but when the earth is covered with 

 snow, the stomach will generally contain remains of grouse 

 or rabbits. This is no doubt due to the habit of the grouse 

 to bury in the snow." Mr. F. B. McKechnie of Ponkapog 

 tells the following : "In May and June of the present year 

 I was at a loss to account for the destruction of numbers of 

 birds' nests found by a friend and myself about Ponkapog. 

 Catbirds, song sparrows, thrashers, black-billed cuckoos, 

 ovenbirds, redstarts and other nests were robbed of their 

 contents with astonishing rapidity. Red squirrels and snakes 

 were very scarce in the pasture where these nests were found, 

 and after some discussion we laid the destruction to foxes. 

 It is well known that foxes will follow a man's track ; but 

 it was not for some time that we found out that they were 

 deliberately following us, and taking the eggs and young 

 of all the nests, either on or near the ground, which we 

 had stopped to examine. In the first part of June we got 

 the first clew, when a young fox, following Mr. Horton, 

 walked to within a few yards of him in a swamp where 

 he had stopped to watch a Canada warbler. In the morn- 



* The inadequacy of an examination of stomach contents alone to determine 

 the character of an animal's food is seen, when we consider that we get, in this 

 way, evidence of only one meal out of all that the animal has eaten during its 

 lifetime. 



