viii PREFACE 



fox in life and literature we find that he is so 

 surrounded by a cloud of myths and legends, 

 ancient and modern, that, like other heroes, his 

 true nature is obscured. It is sometimes diffi- 

 cult to distinguish between the real and the 

 legendary fox. The latter is one of the objects 

 of this book. The stories about the animal 

 told here have been sifted and tested. I have 

 tried not to include anything of which the truth 

 was not probable. The anecdotes which have 

 survived the winnowing process are nevertheless 

 still notable enough to give the fox a high place 

 among animals for his adaptability and in- 

 telligence. I have found, as all students of 

 natural history must, the natural history columns 

 of the ' Field ' most instructive and suggestive. 

 After searching through a long series of years 

 of that paper, I desire to express once for all 

 my obligations both to the facts recorded and 

 to the editorial remarks on them. In disputed 

 points, as that of the existence of the hybrid 

 between the fox and the dog, I have found that 

 my own observations and enquiries confirm the 

 conclusions arrived at by the natural history 

 editor of the ' Field.' So far as I know this book 

 is the first which has collected together the facts 



