CUBDOM. 6=; 



suckling her along with her own cubs, 

 whilst she looked down smiling on the lot, 

 and did not In the least resent this seemingly 

 very cool conduct on the part of the little 

 strangers. One would have Imagined she 

 would have snapped at them and made them 

 clear out of that, but not a bit of It, and when 

 the cubs had done suckling, which did not take 

 more than a minute or two, they played all 

 together backwards and forwards over the bank. 

 Just at dusk a fine dog fox came up and joined 

 the happy family, and I was able to write and 

 inform Brackley that I could go one better than 

 the woodman, as I had seen eleven foxes, of 

 sorts, at the earth together, but that the cubs 

 were still very small. Another dog fox might 

 have come up later on, as I had no reason to 

 suppose the one which did come up was the 

 father of both lots, especially as one litter had 

 shifted from a distance of nearly a mile. 



It does not do to put down food at an earth 

 where there are cubs, either by way of assistance 

 to the vixen or to entice the cubs out to eat it, 

 as It may cause the vixen to shift them to 

 another earth. As a case in point, I remember 

 when quite a lad having shot a peewit ; J 



