THE FOX. 201 



dom less than three. The female goes with young about six 

 weel^s, and seldom stirs out while pregnant, but makes a bed 

 for her young, and takes every precaution to prepare for their 

 production. When she finds the place of their retreat discov- 

 ered, and that her young have been disturbed during her 

 absence, she removes them one after the other in her mouth, 

 and endeavors to find them out a place of better security. A 

 remarkable instance of this animal's parental affection hap- 

 pened in the county of Essex. A she-fox that had, as it 

 should seem, but one cub, was unkennelled by a gentleman's 

 hounds near Chelmsford, and hotly pursued. In such a case, 

 when her own life was in imminent peril, one would think it 

 was not a time to consult the safety of her young : however, 

 the poor animal, braving every danger, rather than leave her 

 cub behind to be worried by the dogs, took it up in her mouth, 

 and ran with it in this manner for some miles. At last, 

 taking her way through a farmer's yard, she was assaulted 

 by a mastiff, and at last obliged to drop her cub, which was 

 taken up by the farmer. I was not displeased to hear that 

 this faithful creature escaped the pursuit, and at last got off 

 in safety. The cubs of the fox are bora blind, like those of 

 the dog ; they are eighteen months or two years in coining 

 to perfection, and live about twelve or fourteen years. 



As the fox makes war upon all animals, so all others seem 

 to make war upon him. The dog hunts him with peculiar 

 acrimony ; the wolf is still a greater and more necessitous 

 enemy, who pursues him to his very retreat. Some pretend 

 to say, that, to keep the wolf away, the fox lays at the mouth 

 of its kennel a certain herb, to which the wolf has a particular 

 aversion. This, which no doubt is a fable, at least shows 

 that these two animals are as much enemies to each other as 

 to all the rest of Animated Nature. But the fox is not hunted 

 by quadrupeds alone ; for the birds, who know him for their 

 mortal enemy, attend him in his excursions, and give each 

 other warning of their approaching danger. The daw, the 

 magpie, and the blackbird conduct him along, perching on 

 the hedges as he creeps below, and, with their cries and notes 



