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"The Fox preys on all animals from a young roe to a beetle, 

 but principally Mice. * * * He spares neither old or 

 young, and zealously pursues Hares and Rabbits, and even at- 

 tacks young roes or Deer. He not only plunders the nests of 

 all birds brooding on the ground, devouring both eggs and 

 young, but also tries to overcome the old birds, and not infre- 

 quently succeeds in doing so. He swims and wades through 

 swamps and marshes, in order to reach the birds which brood on 

 the water, and there are cases on record where he has killed 

 brooding Swans. He also attacks tame poultry and effects an 

 entrance into isolated farm-yards at night; and if he is afforded 

 a good cover, he pursues the poultry even in broad daylight. 

 In large orchards and vineyards he is a more frequent visitor 

 than one imagines. There he catches grasshoppers, May-bugs 

 and their grubs. Rain-worms, etc., or gathers sweet pears, 

 grapes or berries. At the river bank he tries to surprise a fine 

 Trout or a stupid Crab; at the sea-shore he empties the nets of 

 the fishers; in the forest he robs the nooses spread by the hun- 

 ter. In this way his larder is always well stocked and he be- 

 comes straitened in circumstances only when the snow is very 

 deep and impairs his opportunities. Then he is satisfied with 

 anything edible, not only with carcasses, which he will feed 

 upon at any season and seems to like, as all Canid^e (dog fam- 

 ily) do, but even with an old, dried-out bone or a piece of half- 

 rotten leather. Quite frequently, also, he visits the encamp- 

 ments of wood-choppers to pick up the remains of their repast. 

 When his hunger is half satisfied, he plays long and cruelly 

 with his prey before dispatching it. * * * Only the 

 pangs of hunger can goad him into reckless actions; but when 

 he has been long deprived of food he becomes downright im- 

 pudent. In broad daylight the hungry Fox will put in an ap- 

 pearance in a yard, seize upon a Chicken or Goose before peo- 

 ple's very eyes, and hasten away with his prey. He is much 

 averse to parting with the booty so arduously procured, and if 

 he is compelled to relinquish it, he repeatedy returns to see 

 whether he still cannot make away with it. The same bold- 

 ness is occasionally displayed by him under circumstances 

 calling for immediate flight. Once a Fox, which was being 

 hunted by hounds, and had twice heard the shot buzzing by, 

 seized a sick Hare in his flight and carried it with him for a 

 considerable distance. Another was surrounded in a field; he 

 came out, attacked a wounded Hare, killed it before the eyes 

 of the huntsmen, rapidly buried it in the snow, and then fled 

 directly through the line formed by the sportsmen." 



