FOXES 89 



they worked for the cubs, bringing them five 

 times their requirements, and varying from a 

 turkey to a young thrush or blackbird, or a rat. 

 He says he had his good days and his bad days in 

 those early mornings. 



" Foxes in this country generally leave the 

 earth about the 21st to 28th June, and go into a 

 wheat or bean field somewhere near. When the 

 wheat or beans are high you can usually tell 

 where they are by looking for their playground 

 in and out through the hedges, near where they 

 have taken up their abode in the field. 



" If you notice their droppings you cannot, as 

 a rule, help noticing many beetle wings and 

 bodies. Foxes and cubs eat many beetles, and it 

 is very amusing to watch cubs late in the evening 

 when they come out about 8.30 to 9.30. If still 

 light enough to see them on the grass, if there is 

 any near the earth, they may be seen to pounce 

 on and catch scores of beetles, varying their 

 beetling by gambolling and rearing up at each 

 other, and rolling over each other like kittens. 



" I have seen an old vixen when cubs are 

 getting a fair size send them back from following 

 her, more than a hundred yards. If a vixen sees 

 you, or smells, or hears you when the cubs are 

 out, she will give an angry sound like ' gwo, 

 gwo,' and the cubs will rush into the earth as 

 fast as they can scud, and probably you will not 

 see them again for at least an hour ; if well away 

 from the earth herself the vixen will not follow 

 them, but scout round, and then go through a 

 hedge and be no more seen for some time. I 

 have seen this near the artificial earth, w^here, 

 however, cubs are seldom born, but are nearly 

 always brought there when very young, after 



