THE FELL FOX 27 



he thinks he can use it for a meal. Like a dog, he 

 often buries food for future consumption. I was 

 recently talking to a keeper who found three 

 rabbits buried in the snow. The tale of Reynard's 

 doings was plainly told on the white surface. The 

 rabbits had been feeding in rank grass and rushes, 

 and the fox had easily stalked and captured them. 

 I have found the following Ust of furred and 

 feathered creatures scattered about in and around 

 a fell fox's earth : Portions of two leverets, remains 

 of several rabbits, feathers and bones of grouse, a 

 very young lamb, and the untouched body of a 

 short-eared owl. The only mark on the owl was a 

 bite in the neck, probably done by the vixen when 

 she killed the bird. Owl had not apparently 

 suited the cubs' taste, otherwise they would soon 

 have pulled it to pieces. 



At other earths I have found remains of 

 pheasants and woodcock, with occasionally bones 

 and feathers of blackgame. Both the dog-fox and 

 the vixen carry food to the cubs, but the vixen does 

 most of this work. 



If an earth is disturbed when the cubs are quite 

 young, the vixen carries them off one by one to 

 some safer retreat. A breeding earth often be- 

 comes very foul, what with the excrement of the 

 cubs and the rotting portions of food left lying 

 about. Unless the vixen occasionally shifted her 

 offspring disease would be liable to attack them. 



