THE FELL FOX 41 



struggle crouched down and watched the per- 

 formance. If one cub approached another in 

 hopes of sharmg the feast, the feeding fox would 

 growl furiously in defence of his tit-bit. The 

 vocal sounds of these cubs were a sort of growl 

 and hiss combined, a curious medley of dog and 

 cat noises. 



Occasionally one of them would bark, the sound 

 being a sharp wow, wow, wow, the last note being 

 longer drawn than the rest. On many a night 

 in early spring I have heard the same sharp bark 

 far up the fell side, where a dog-fox was calling 

 to his mate. 



I have more than once seen pictures of foxes 

 " barking at the moon," exactly as a dog does on a 

 clear, moonlight night. These pictures always 

 represented the fox with his nose pointed skyward, 

 as a dog does when he howls. I have not seen a 

 wild fox in the act of barking, but the cubs above 

 mentioned invariably held their heads quite low, 

 with nose slightly towards the ground. The only 

 vixen in this litter was much tamer than her 

 brothers, and never took part in any of the 

 scrimmages, at feeding time. One of the dog 

 cubs carried his brush much Uke a collie, with a 

 decided curl at the tip. Probably in time, however, 

 this curl would straighten out. 



As these cubs were to be eventually turned 

 down, they were in no way petted, and never 



