CUBDOM. 43 



occasional pheasant, which she had evidently 

 come across by accident (I do not believe a fox 

 ever goes out specially to look for pheasants or 

 partridges, but finds them when searching for 

 other food, and, of course, makes the most of its 

 opportunity I), thus showing that, whilst the 

 latter travelled the fields and woods, the 

 former prowled round the farm yards and hen 

 roosts. 



Fish, foxes are very fond of, and I have found 

 the skeleton of a pike which must have weighed 

 at least ten pounds at an earth more than a 

 mile from the nearest water, where it must have 

 been blown on shore after a stormy night and 

 then picked up by the fox. On the shores of 

 Lough Derg, when I was a lad, I have often 

 seen a vixen, in the grey of the morning, 

 searching amongst the rocks after a blusterv 

 night for any fish which might have been blown 

 in (which frequently happens), or the young of 

 the waterfowl which nested on the lake — coots, 

 moorhens, &c. — which may be added to the 

 above list. Foxes also, are very fond of the 

 ordinary beetle, the wings of which can be seen 

 in every " billet.^' 



The partiality of foxes for fish, on one 



