28 THE FOX 



cub will teach the others to fend for themselves, for 

 young foxes have to learn every detail of their craft. 

 If you put a litter of foxes without a vixen into a 

 strange covert, they must be confined and fed for 

 a time, or they will wander away and starve in the 

 midst of plenty, because they have not yet learned how 

 to live without help. So in their play the cubs prac- 

 tise diligently, and every leaf that flutters in the wind, 

 every insect that crawls, they stalk most scientifically. 

 It is very curious how cat-like in many ways a 

 fox is : it has the canine structure but the feline 

 strategy. The waving of the brush slowly backwards 

 and forwards when food is in sight or expected, and 

 when stalking, is very noteworthy. When the vixen 

 is heard or winded returning to her cubs the little 

 brushes begin to wave, not, I am convinced, as a 

 dog wags its tail, but as a cat or a tiger sways its 

 tail when meditating an attack. This curious slow 

 movement may be of assistance to animals when 

 stalking their prey. The movement in the grass 

 behind the creeping foe may attract the eye and 

 help to conceal the crouching danger. Like the 

 devices of the conjurer to distract our gaze from 

 what he does not want us to see, so the fox or 

 the cat with gently waving brush or tail distracts 

 the eye of the intended victim. 



