8o FOXES AT HOME. 



away from the earth, round the point of a spur 

 out of sight, and ahnost immediately they had 

 gone the vixen came up from the opposite 

 direction with a rabbit in her mouth, which the 

 turned-down cubs immediately rushed up and 

 took from her. After looking at them for a 

 moment or two, she cantered round the spur 

 after her own cubs and did not again return. 

 Thus two years in succession the wild vixens 

 took charge of the turned-down cubs, and I had 

 no further trouble, and they were as good as 

 wild litters. There is this danger, however : if 

 the wild litters are tainted with mange, as they 

 unfortunately were in this case, the turned- 

 down cubs will only too soon, for certain, catch 

 the infection. I strongly recommend anyone, 

 therefore, who has to turn down cubs, to do so 

 if possible close to where there is a wild, healthy 

 litter; as the vixen belonging to it is almost 

 certain to take them, or they to tack on to her. 

 It does not do, however, to give the wild vixen 

 too many to look after — six all told is quite 

 sufficient for the one fox to feed — although, as I 

 said before, the dog will frequently lend a hand. 

 Dog foxes (and vixens, too) often disappear 

 unaccountably in many localities at the end of 



