54 FOXES AT HOME. 



their food outside, the vixen shifts them to a 

 fresh earth. This is about a fortnight or three 

 weeks after they begin to play out. The first 

 earth becomes dreadfully foul with the decom- 

 posing remains of the uneaten scraps of food, 

 rabbit skins, etc. This is a very wise provision 

 of nature, as otherwise the cubs would certainly 

 become mangy from their filthy surroundings. 

 She draws out another earth a dav or two before- 

 hand, or moves to one of those which she had 

 originally worked, so that you can almost always 

 tell, not only when she means to shift, but 

 where she intends to shift to, and on finding 

 they have left the earth they were bred in, gO' 

 straight to where they are. 



When a vixen shifts her cubs in the ordinary 

 course they are always large enough to jog 

 along with her, and it is astonishing how soon 

 they can do this. A cub half the size of a 

 rabbit is well able to follow the vixen a mile or 

 more at a "go-as-you-please" pace. Should 

 the vixen, however, have to shift in a hurry, and 

 the cubs be very tiny, she will carrv them in her 

 mouth. When shifting any great distance they 

 often make use of a convenient rabbit burrow 

 as a sort of hall-way house to rest at for a 



