226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



Foxes have been seen to follow people who were photo- 

 graphing or observing birds' nests, and the nests were robbed 

 after the investigators had passed. Foxes find and destroy 

 the eggs and young of many ground-nesting birds, including 

 those of the ruffed grouse and bobwhite. They spring after 

 birds on the wing and catch them. Ruffed grouse, woodcock 

 and bobwhites have been found in fox stomachs. They catch 

 both young and old game birds in summer, even wild ducks. 

 In winter they catch grouse, pheasants and bobwhites under 

 the snow, or under the lower branches of coniferous trees where 

 the birds take shelter for the night. 



Long experience of many observers leads to the belief that 

 where foxes are too plentiful game becomes scarce and when 

 foxes are reduced in number game increases. Quantities of 

 feathers and other remains of birds, particularly those of the 

 ruffed grouse, have been found where fox dens have been 

 opened. In a region in western Massachusetts where foxes 

 were plentiful I was unable in two days to find a ruffed grouse 

 or hear one drumming, and the only traces of the species that 

 could be found were feathers at the entrance of two fox dens. 

 Although it is true that foxes live chiefly on mice and insects, 

 they destroy many species of birds, domestic fowls (including 

 turkeys, geese and pigeons), also lambs, fawns, cats, young 

 pigs, porcupines, hares, rabbits, woodchucks, muskrats, mice, 

 moles, shrews, frogs and insects. Foxes often kill numbers of 

 turkeys and chickens that are allowed to run at large in or 

 near woods or to roost in the trees. In one such case that 

 came under my observation a poultryman lost more than two 

 hundred hens and chickens in a short time and gave up the 

 business. Foxes were the only creatures seen to take them. 

 Those who doubt the destructiveness of the fox should con- 

 sult the "Diseases and Enemies of Poultry," by Drs. Pearson 

 and Warren, pubKshed by the State of Pennsylvania. All that 

 is said here of the red fox will apply to the Cross fox and the 

 black fox. The northern gray fox (JJrocyon cinereoargenteus 

 horealis) is almost equally destructive to birds and game, but 

 is not common in Massachusetts. 



