THE STORY OF THE FOX, 



39] 



mer it preys upon the numerous land and aquatic birds. Wliat it lives 

 on in winter when the birds have left for a southern latitude no one 

 seems to know, although it is believed that, like the squirrel, they lay by 

 a store of provisions during the summer months. The Arctic fox is 

 fond of bird's eggs as well as of birds, and I once shot one which had a 

 murre's o^gg in its mouth. 



In Asia there are several breeds of desert foxes, the largest specimens 



AFRICAN ASSE FOX. 



having a striped appearance. In Central Asia we find the Corsac fox, of 

 a paler color, white under parts, a black-tipped tail, and lacking the stripe 

 of the desert fox. 



It is a thin-brained creature, possessing none of the cunning of the red 

 and gray foxes of Europe and America. It is too lazy to make its own 

 burrow, and finds its home in the burrow of the marmot, which that animal 

 has either deserted or from which he has been evicted. 



Of the true foxes the pretty little Indian fox is the smallest, measuring 



