THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOX 19 



is anxious to avoid betraying their hiding-place, and 

 for this she has good reason. Foxes had, and have 

 still, a pecuniary value, and the dangers to the young 

 family are many. First there are the fox-stealers, and 

 the methods of these men are often ingenious. The 

 most effectual plan is to send a small terrier, trained 

 to the work, into the earth, to bring out the cubs un- 

 injured, one by one, in its mouth. The Hunt servants 

 often have orders to move cubs from places where 

 they are not safe, to others where they are more wel- 

 come. The farm labourer sometimes, and the keeper 

 often, digs out and destroys what he considers to be a 

 superfluous litter. Thus the vixen has many dangers 

 to fear. Like all animals of prey, the fox instinctively 

 conceals itself, and it requires no effort to believe 

 that the vixen will not betray the whereabouts of 

 her earth if she can by any means conceal it. But 

 hunger is the supreme law of the wild animal, and 

 the creature left entirely to her own resources, and 

 less strong and active than usual, may, and doubtless 

 often does, forget her caution. 



At other times the vixen simply places the cubs 

 in a nest above ground ; and this I think depends a 

 good deal on the age at which the cubs are moved. 

 Foxes are said to travel long distances carrying a 

 cub. If we consider that a litter may consist of four 



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