126 THE COMMON FOX. 



Foxes that have their habitations near the sea coast, 

 when better food is scarce, will eat crabs, shrimps, 

 or shell-fish. 



The dexterity which the Fox employs in seizing 

 and securing his prey, is such, that the animal has, 

 in nearly all ages, been proverbial for his cunning 

 His schemes are various. In his approaches to the 

 poultry-house, and his ravages among poultry, the 

 utmost silence and caution are observed. He steals 

 slily along, and, lest he should be heard or ob- 

 served, even sometimes trails his body. If there is 

 room for him to creep in under the door, or 

 through the hole formed to admit the fowls, he 

 generally puts many of them to death. It is not 

 his interest to eat them upon the spot, for in this 

 case he could only make a single meal. He there- 

 fore carries them off one by one, and, digging 

 holes in different places, at some distance from the 

 farm yard, thrusts them in with his nose, ramming 

 down the loose earth to secure them from dis- 

 covery. In these places the bodies lie concealed, 

 till the calls of hunger incite him to devour them. 



When the Fox is in pursuit of wild game, which, 

 as well as other prey, he is able to scent at the 

 amazing distance of two or three hundred paces, 

 he first makes his approach as near as prudence 

 will allow, and then seizes the bird by a spring, 

 Mr. Stackhouse informs me, that the Fox is able to 

 spring to a vast distance in this pursuit, as he has 

 seen on the Grouse hills, by the traces in the snow. 



