98 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Photo by G. 



Wilson &> Co., Ltd.'] 



MOUNTAIN-FOX 



In hilly countries the fox becomes a powerful and destructive animal, killing not only game 



but /amis 



taken out before the American Revolution. India has 

 its small DESERT-FOXES (" the little foxes that eat the 

 grapes ") and the BENGAL Fox. 



The value of the foxes as fur-bearing animals is 

 immense. Only white, blue, and black skins seem to be 

 appreciated here. The black fox has been known 

 to fetch $750 a skin. But in the East, from Asia 

 Minor to China, red, gray, and 

 yellow fox skins are the lining 

 of every rich man's winter wraps. 

 Splendid mixed robes are made 

 by the Chinese by inserting por- 

 tions of cross fox-skins into coats 

 of cut sable, giving the idea that 

 it is the fur of a new animal.. 



The COMMON Fox, the 

 foundation or type of all the 

 above, is the best known carnivorous animal in this country. Abroad its habits do not 

 greatly differ, except that, not being hunted much with hounds, it is less completely nocturnal. 

 It drops its young in an earth early in April. Thither the vixen carries food till late in June, 

 when the cubs come out, and often move to a wood or a corn-field. There they are still fed, 

 but learn to do a little on their own account by catching mice and moles. By late September 

 the hounds come cub-hunting, partly to kill off superfluous foxes, partly to educate the young 

 hounds, and to teach the foxes to fear them and to make them leave cover easily. Four or five 

 cubs in a litter are commonly seen. The distance which a fox will run is extraordinary. The 

 following is a true account of one of the most remarkable runs ever known. The hounds 

 were those of Mr. Tom Smith, master of the Hambledon Hunt. He was the man of whom 

 another famous sportsman said that if he were a fox he should prefer to be hunted by a pack 

 of hounds rather than by Tom Smith with a stick in his hand. The fox was found in a cover 

 called Markwells, at one o'clock in the afternoon in December, near Petersfield. It crossed into 

 Sussex, and ran into an earth in Graf ham Hill a little before dark. The fox had gone twenty- 

 seven miles. The hounds had forty miles to go back to kennel that night, and three only 

 found their way home four days afterwards. Dog-foxes assemble in considerable numbers 



when a vixen is about in spring, and 

 at all times common foxes are sociable 

 creatures, though not actually living 

 in societies. Sometimes as many as 

 five or six are found in a single earth. 

 Two years ago five foxes and a badger 

 were found in one near Romford. 

 They eat mice, beetles, rats, birds, 

 game, poultry, and frogs. Their 

 favourite food is rabbits. If there 

 are plenty of these, they will not 

 touch other game. They hunt along 

 the railway-lines for dead birds 

 killed by the telegraph-wires. In the 

 New Forest they also go down to the 

 shore and pick up dead fish. One in 

 the writer's possession was shot when 



fhtto bf C. Reid] 



[lfiihaw, N. B. 



LEICESTERSHIRE FOX 



