56 FOXES AT HOME. 



I remember once a vixen had shifted with her 

 cubs, which were nearly as large as hares, to 

 another earth nearly three-quarters of a mile 

 distant; but one refractory cub, the head of the 

 litter, remained behind. We were not aware 

 that she had actually moved, though we knew 

 where she intended going, and passing close to 

 the earth one morning very early stopped to 

 see if the cubs were playing out. A single cub 

 was playing by himself on the earth, throwing 

 rabbit skins into the air and catching them 

 before they reached the ground and other 

 antics, and we were wondering where the others 

 were, when the vixen came up and tried to 

 entice this cub to follow her, trotting away a 

 few yards, and calling him, a sort of whining 

 bark right down in the throat ; he followed her 

 once or twice for twenty or thirty yards, but 

 then scampered back to the earth again and 

 went on with his games. At last the vixen 

 could stand it no longer, but rushed at him, and, 

 seizing him by the back of the neck, trotted 

 away with him in her mouth, his little hind legs 

 dragging on the ground, and she never once 

 put him down as long as we could keep her in 

 sight with our field glasses, quite two or three 



