BREEDING IN CAPTIVITY. I75 



The Fecundity of Reynard. 



After a period of two months gestation, or a little over, 

 the vixen usually brings forth a litter of from four to six 

 cubs, which, as most readers will be aware, attain full size, 

 if not maturity, in eighteen months, the average duration 

 of life being believed to be from twelve to fifteen years. 

 Like most wild animals, the vixen will instinctively and 

 courageously defend her young, which at this early age, 

 are exceedingly pretty and very playful. I have known 

 several instances of cubs being brought up in captivity, 

 and tamed to a certain extent, but they were untrustworthy 

 and apt to snap at the hand that fed them. If I remember 

 aright, the late Viscount Doneraile lost his life from the 

 bite of a tame fox, from which rabies supervened. 



As a rule wild creatures, whether of fur or feather, do 

 not breed in captivity, but some years ago an experiment 

 was made in our oldest colony, Newfoundland, in breeding 

 from the wild silver-black fox in confinement. This animal 

 being an exceedingly shy creature, most people were at 

 first sceptical as to the possibility of success ; but without 

 reason ; for the greater number of the beautiful skins which 

 now adorn the ladies, many as valuable as sable, are the 

 product of foxes, regularly bred and reared in captivity, the 

 experiment having proved very interesting and profitable. 



The Galloway Clears the Brook. 



Hounds had found and gone away from the lower end 

 of Norton Gorse, and were running across my father's 

 Stretton Glebe, when as a youth I found myself, mounted 

 on a Galloway called Tom Tucker, carried as fast as 

 my quad, could lay his legs to the ground across one of the 

 top fields ; the only means of getting out of which, without 

 making a long detour, was via a stiff ash rail fence. This 



