FOXES AT HOME. 



CHAPTER I 



The Mammals of the Woods 



So recently as the beginning of the Christian era Europe was to a great extent 

 covered with primeval forest, and to the denizens of the woods may most fittingly be 

 given the first place in the description of its present fauna. At that period the 

 distribution of life differed greatly from what it is now, when carefully tended 

 woodlands separated by tracts of open country, parks, orchards, and plantations, 

 have so changed the face of the land that it is difficult to distinguish between the 

 animals of the forest and those of the fields. Those, however, which depend upon 

 trees and bushes for their subsistence, frequent the underwood, and are met with 

 on the outskirts and in the outliers of the wooded regions, may safely be classed 

 among the forest-dwellers, of which mammals are treated first. 



Of the general characters of the vertebrates it will suffice to say that between 

 the central nervous system, which extends the whole length of the body on the 

 back, and the alimentary canal extending also along the body but not throughout 

 the entire length on the abdominal side, is interposed the principal part of the 

 skeleton, that is, the backbone or spine, which may be bony, or more or less 

 cartilaginous in its composition. Among the vertebrates, the most highly de- 

 veloped are the mammals. 



The chief characteristics of mammals are their warm, red blood, their 

 respiration by lungs, and their habit of suckling their young. The body is 

 generally covered with hair, which is renewed once or twice a year, and varies in 



