46 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



stamped into the hide where it is least valuable. The brand could be 

 registered, and the skin or the live animals thus identified. If such a 

 method be practical, it would have the additional advantage of being 

 undiscoverable by thieves and of rendering it possible to identify the 

 skin on the open market. 



The catching and handling of foxes in their pens pre- 

 H and ling sents Kttle difficulty. Expert ranchers will catch and 



handle them without gloves or instruments, but the 

 ordinary rancher provides himself with a pair of tongs the jaws of which 

 will close to a diameter of two and a half inches. The fox is shut into 

 his nest, and, when the cover is lifted, is grasped about the neck with 

 the tongs. The fox may then be carried away on the arm and the 

 rancher be in no danger of getting bitten. A catching box is also useful. 

 It is made just large enough to admit the fox and has a slide door at 

 each end. When it is placed at the end of the entrance to a house with 

 one slide door opened, the fox may be driven out of the nest into it. 

 The slide door is closed and the fox is thus trapped in the box. If 

 the catching box be made of stiff wire-mesh sides and top, the fur can 

 be closely examined. In the case of the latter type of construction, how- 

 ever, the fox might not readily enter it unless a blanket was placed over 

 the box to darken it. 



When foxes are transported, they are put into a box which is lined 

 with meshed wire so that they cannot escape by gnawing their way out. 

 They can be kept without water or food for days, but are generally fed 

 water biscuits or a bone and are watered, a can being nailed on the in- 

 terior for that purpose. Express companies are obliged to feed them 

 if food is provided. 



When foxes are brought to their pens for the first time, they should 

 be liberated by making a small opening in the box and holding it up to 

 the entrance of the kennel. They will then enter their nest and, after 

 a minute's inspection, will come out into the pen. By this time, the 

 keeper can be away out of sight, and none, or very few, will attempt 

 to climb the wire or rush against it. If pens are provided with cover 

 and built in secluded woodland, the wildest foxes will not climb the 

 wire if the keeper is competent and no strangers are admitted. 



No foxes except a few old ones and culls were killed in 

 Slaughtering 

 for Fur Prince Edward Island for their pelts in 1910, 1911 or 



1912. The pelt of a fox becomes prime in November, but 



is not afi heavy then as in December. They are killed on Prince Edward 



Island in the last week of December. An eight months old fox is said 



to have as full and large a skin as an older one. Some breeders, how- 



