(58 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Instances of cunning and sagacity. 



tamed, and like all savage animals half reclaimed, 

 will, on the slightest offence, bite those with 

 whom he is most familiar. He evidently lan- 

 guishes when deprived of liberty; and if kept too 

 long in confinement, he falls a victim to me- 

 lancholy. 



This animal is esteemed the most sagacious 

 and most crafty of all predaceous quadrupeds. 

 The former quality he exhibits in his mode of 

 providing himself an asylum, where he retires 

 from pressing danger, resides and brings up his 

 young; and his craftiness is discovered by his 

 schemes to catch lambs, poultiy, and all kinds of 

 small birds. When this appears practicable, the 

 fox fixes his abode on the border of a wood, in 

 the neighbourhood of some farm or village. He 

 there listens to the crowing of the cocks, and the 

 cries of the poultry , which he perfectly scents at 

 a considerable distance : he chuses his time with 

 judgment; he conceals his road as well as his de- 

 sign ; he slips forward with caution, sometimes 

 even trailing his body ; and seldom makes an un- 

 successful expedition. If he can leap the wall, 

 or creep in underneath, he ravages the court- 

 yard, puts all to death, and retires silently with 

 his prey; which he either conceals under her- 

 bage, or carries off to his kennel. In a few mi- 

 nutes he returns for more ; which he carries off 

 or conceals in the same manner, but in a different 

 place : and thus he proceeds till the rising sun,, 

 or some movements in the house warn him to 



