FOX. 



these oases, took the key, and marched off, basket in 

 hand, to bring the supply ; but, when she opened the 

 door, a scene of the ino-1 direful havoc presented 

 itself. Every perch and nest-hole was bedabbled with 

 blood, dead hens lay in dozens on the floor, and in 

 the middle was a full-sized fox, stretched out at 

 full length, and apparently a sharer in the common 

 mortality. The maid never doubted the death of the 

 fox, but attributed it to a different cause, namely, that 

 he had so gorged himself on the poultry, as that he 

 had burst. Here were three causes to rouse the 

 mingled wrath and content of Christian. The fox 

 had, by some means or other, shown that the place 

 was not impregnable ; there had been terrible havoc 

 among- the hens ; and the fox had been gluttonous even 

 to the death. She pronounced his funeral oration 

 in certain most expressive Gaelic phrases, which we 

 shall not quote, and will not translate ; and then, 

 without further ceremony, gave him a resting place, 

 which she said was worse than a dog's burial. She 

 took him up by the tail, and swung him with all her 

 might into the receptacle in which were accumulated 

 the requisites for garden compost. The fox fell 

 softly, and rose again speedily, and, like Curll the 

 bookseller in the Dunciad ; he " scoured and stunk 

 along." until he gained the cover of the woods, leaving 

 Christian in utter consternation, and the minister 

 minus both his pullets and the glory of his impreg- 

 nable hen-house. 



Common ! 



The entrance to this place was by a stone some 

 feet from the ground, with a little hole over it, and 

 by this the fox mu-t have gained admission, and so, 

 gaining admission, he had killed every fowl that he 

 could reach ; and he must have killed them so silently 

 and so suddenly, as that no noise or complaint on the 

 part of any one had in the least alarmed the others. 

 This is, we believe, the most striking peculiarity of the 

 fox on his predatory excursions, and the above anec- 

 dote shows it in a very striking light, for there were 

 perches so elevated that no fox could roach them ; 

 and as the pullets were in the habit of taking to them 

 in other cases of alarm, of course they would have 

 done so upon this invasion of the fox, if his deeds 

 of slaughter had been attended with any noise. We 

 have mentioned those anecdotes because they are 

 characteristic, and we know them to be true. 



The BLUE Fox or Is AXIS (V. lagopus). This spe- 

 cies occurs only in the arctic regions, a few degrees 

 within and without the polar circle, particularly in 

 Kamtschatka, and all the country bordering on the 

 northern ocean. It is inferior in size to the preced- 

 ing, and is sometimes to be met with entirely white, 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



though it is generally of a bluish grey colour. It is 

 so very hardy as to prowl about for prey during the 

 utmost rigour of the hyperborean winter. It. subsists 

 on young wild-geese, and all kinds of wafer fowl and 

 their eggs, on hares, the smaller quadrupeds, &c., and 

 frequently from necessity, on wild berries, shell-fish, 

 or other substances rejected by the sea. They, in 

 some regions, burrow in the earth, and form holes 

 many feet in length, strewing the bottom with moss ; 

 but where the ground is seldom quite free from frost, 

 as in Spitsbergen a;:d Greenland, they live in the 

 clefts of rocks, two or three inhabiting the same hole. 

 They are in the habit of crossing from island to island, 

 in quest of prey, being very excellent swimmers. 

 They are caught in pitfalls, springes, or trap?, baited 

 with capalin or a bit of flesh, for the sake of their 

 skins, which form a light and warm, but not a durable 

 fur. The most interesting account, by far, which we 

 know of the manners of this species, is that which 

 Steller relates ; but we shall only give a part of the 

 passage to which we allude. " When we made a 

 halt to rest by the way," says Steller, " they gathered 

 around us, and played us a thousand tricks in our 

 view ; and when we sat still, they approached us so 

 closely, that they gnawed our shoe-strings. If we lay 

 down as if intending to sleep, they came and smelt at 

 our noses, to ascertain whether we were dead or alive. 

 On our first arrival, they bit off the noses, fingers, and 

 toes of our dead, when we were preparing the grave ; 

 arid thronged in such a manner about the infirm and 

 sick, that it was with difficulty we could keep them off. 



" F,very morning we saw these audacious animals 

 patrolling among the sea-lions and polar bears, lying 

 on the strand, smelling at such as were asleep. If death 

 happened to be the case, they proceeded to dissect 

 him immediately, and soon afterwards all were at work 

 in dragging the parts away. As the sea-lions, in their 

 sleep, sometimes overlay their young, the foxes every 

 morning examined the whole herd of them, one by 

 one, as if conscious of this circumstance, and imme- 

 diately dragged away the dead cubs from their dams. 



" A"S they would not suffer us to be at rest by night 

 or day, we became exasperated against them, young 

 and old, and harassed them by every means we could 

 devise. When we awoke in the morning, we al- 

 ways saw two or three that had been knocked on the 

 head the preceding night ; and I can safely affirm, 

 that, during our stay on the island, I killed above two 

 hundred of these animals with my own hands. On 

 the third day after my arrival, I knocked down with 

 a club, within the space of three hours, upwards of 

 seventy of them, and made a covering to my tent of 

 their skins. They were so unsuspicious, that with one 

 hand one could hold to them a piece of flesh, and 

 knock them down with a stick or axe in the other. 



" From all the circumstances that occurred during 

 our stay, it was evident that these animals could never 

 before have been acquainted with mankind, and that 

 the dread of man is not innate in brutes, but must be 

 grounded on long experience. 



" Like the common foxes, they were the most sleek 

 and full of hair in the months of October and Novem- 

 ber ; in January and February it was over thick ; in 

 April and Mnv they began to shed their coat; in the 

 two following 'months they had only wool on them, 

 and appeared as if they went in waistcoats. In Juiie 

 they dropped their cubs, nine or ten at a brood, in 

 holes or clefts of the rocks. They are so fond of their 

 young-, that to scare us away from them, they barked 

 J L L 



