126 THE FOX 



the dogs, who found him a most useful ally. Once, 

 when some distance away from home, Joe fell in 

 with the hounds. He had to run for his life, but, 

 fortunately for him, he was a well-known character, 

 and when he made for his home at Oakfield the 

 Master recognised what he was hunting, and called 

 the hounds off. 



The story of Joe was the means of clearing up 

 a disputed point about foxes. The writer of the 

 account in the ' Field ' stated that when Joe saw the 

 plate of meat he wagged his brush. It was at once 

 denied that foxes do wag their brushes, and a 

 spirited controversy ensued. One writer quite un- 

 justly implied that Joe was a fiction, or that at least 

 his story was made up of much-embellished facts. 



It was, however, established beyond doubt that 

 foxes do wag their ' tails.' One reason for this I have 

 suggested elsewhere. But the waving of the tail is 

 common among cats and dogs as we know, and 

 some other animals express pleasure or expectation by 

 moving the tail. When a wholly domesticated dog or 

 cat, a partly tame wolf, fox, or other wild animal, 

 wags its tail, the origin of the habit is of the same 

 kind, though not always identical. 



I have already pointed out that in the feline car- 

 nivora and the fox, which are both stealthy stalkers 



