40 FOXES AT HOME. 



all right, to keep at a respectful distance, 

 especially when they are in a safe place where 

 you would prefer them to remain. It is easy 

 enough to get her to shift if you wish her to 

 do so. 



Soon after she has laid down her cubs the 

 vixen begins to stock her larder for their benefit, 

 and, as a fox really gives very little milk, a 

 juicy rabbit or chicken supplies this deficiency 

 as soon as the cubs are able to partake of it, at 

 a very few weeks old, and the remains of 

 animals and birds of sorts are now frequently 

 buried close by, which are drawn into the earth 

 as occasion requires. 



The variety of food brought by a vixen to her 

 cubs is really astonishing. Rabbits, ducks, 

 geese, chickens, pheasants, partridges, I have 

 found a woodcock, moles, rats, mice — shrew 

 mice they will kill and bring to the earth, but 

 the cubs do not seem to care for them — 

 squirrels, eggs, and the young of small birds, 

 larks, &c., which build on the ground, are 

 frequently brought up alive in the nest. 



Foxes in the olden days had the reputation of 

 being great lamb killers, but this was when game 

 and rabbits were much more scarce than in 



