CHAPTER V 



HOME AND HAUNTS OF THE FOX 



THE homes and haunts of the fox vary according to 

 its age, sex, and surroundings. The earth or burrow 

 is used by the fox, in common with the rest of the 

 Canidce, primarily as a shelter for the vixens and 

 cubs. The fox is not, as are the badger and the rabbit, 

 an underground dweller. In some parts of England 

 and Scotland, the vixen lays up her cubs above 

 ground. When the young ones are able to run 

 about she removes them to some convenient shelter, 

 and as soon as the dog foxes grow up, they wander 

 away and set up for themselves. Most of them have 

 a favourite kennel, to which it has been said they 

 return always at night. But it seems more likely 

 that the fox, having killed and eaten, makes a tem- 

 porary kennel not very far away in some convenient 

 covert. Thus a fox may be found anywhere within 

 his hunting-ground, which is wider or narrower ac- 

 cording to the number of his kind in the district, and 



