•236 



THE BEASTS OF PREY. 



has become distrustful, only the pangs of hunger can 

 goad him into reckless actions; but when he has been 

 long deprived of food, he becomes downright impu- 

 dent. In broad daylight the hungry Fox will put 

 in an appearance in a yard, seize upon a Chicken or 

 Goose before people's very eyes, and hasten away 

 with his prey. He is much averse to parting with 

 the booty so arduously procured, and if he is com- 

 pelled to relinquish it, he repeatedly returns to see 

 whether he still cannot make away with it. The 

 same boldness is occasionally displayed by him 

 under circumstances calling for immediate flight. 

 Once a Fox, which was being hunted by Hounds 

 and had twice heard the shot buzzing by, seized a 

 sick Hare in his flight and carried it with him for 

 a considerable distance. Another was surrounded 

 in a field; he came out, attacked a wounded Hare, 

 killed it before the eyes of the huntsmen, rapidly 

 buried it in the snow, and then fled directly through 

 the line formed by the sportsmen. 

 The Fox Usu- Reynard does not belong to the gre- 

 et//;/ Liues garious animals, and in this respect, 

 a Lonely Life. a \ so> h e differs from the Wolves. It is 

 frequently the case, however, that several Foxes are 

 found in one thicket or even in the same burrow. 

 As a rule every Fox goes his own way and pays only 

 as much attention to others of his kind as he deems 

 to be profitable. Of friendship with other animals 

 he knows as little as of companionship with his own 

 species. He has been repeatedly observed to be on 

 friendly terms even with his deadly foe, the Dog, 

 but these cases have certainly been rare exceptions. 

 Neither can his relations with his cousin, the Badger, 

 be interpreted as friendly, as Reynard by no means 

 cares for the Badger, but only for his apartments. 

 The Mother Litters of young Foxes are born during 

 Fox and the end of April or beginning of May. 

 Her Young. Their number varies between three and 

 twelve; from four to seven is probably the usual 

 count of a litter. The mother treats them with 

 great tenderness, does not leave them during the 

 first days of their life, and afterwards only for a 

 short time during dusk; and appears to be very 

 anxious not to betray their place of abode. 



A month or six weeks after birth the pretty little 

 robbers, clothed in reddish gray wool, emerge from 

 their lair at some quiet hour, to bask in the sun 

 and to play with each other and with the obliging 

 mother. She brings them food in abundance, accus- 

 toming them to a live diet from the very beginning; 

 she brings Mice, little birds. Frogs and Beetles and 

 teaches her hopeful offspring to catch, torment and 

 eat the prey. She is more cautious than ever at 

 such a time, scents danger for her brood in the 

 most innocent thing, and leads them back into the 

 lair at the slightest noise. If she notices pursuit, 

 she drags them to another lair in her mouth and 

 even when she is hard pressed she still takes one 

 young Fox with her and tries to reach a place of 

 safety. An experienced person can quite frequently 

 succeed in observing the playing family. When the 

 little ones have attained a sufficient size they like to 

 lie at the opening of the lair mornings and evenings 

 and await the mother's coming; if they have to wait 

 too long, they bark and thereby occasionally betray 

 themselves. By July they have grown sufficiently 

 to either accompany their mother or to hunt alone 

 and try to surprise a little Hare, a Mouse, a bird or 

 some other animal, if even it be only a Beetle, in the 

 daytime or at dusk. At the end of July they leave 

 the lair for good and establish themselves with their 



mother in some corn-field which holds out a promise 

 of abundant prey and perfect security. After the 

 harvest they go into thick bushes, heather and 

 reeds, during this season completing their education 

 as worthy hunters and cunning poachers, and sepa- 

 rate from the mother in late autumn to begin life 

 on their own responsibility. 

 How the Fox Foxes taken young can be easily reared, 

 Behauesin as they thrive on the ordinary diet of 

 Captiuity. Pups. If one plays much with them, 

 they soon become tame and their lively, playful dis- 

 position makes them very amusing. 



" Of several Foxes which I reared," says Lenz, 

 "the last, a female, was the tamest, because she was 

 smallest when I received her. She was just begin- 

 ning to eat solid food, but had already become so 

 vicious and so much addicted to biting that she 

 always growled when eating her favorite food and 

 bit right and left into straw and wood, even when 

 nobody was disturbing her. Kind treatment soon 

 made her so tame that she would allow me to take a 

 freshly killed Rabbit out of her bloody mouth and 

 insert my finger in its stead. Even when grown up 

 she liked to play with me, was demonstrative in her 

 joy when I visited her, wagged her tail, whined and 

 jumped around. She was just as much pleased to 

 see any stranger; and she distinguished strangers at 

 a distance of fifty paces, when they were turning the 

 corner of the house, and with loud cries would invite 

 them to come up to her, an honor which she never 

 accorded either to me or my brother, who usually 

 fed her, probably because she knew that we would 

 go anyway." 

 The Fox is Relent- Reynard is detested by all sports- 

 lessty Hunted by men, and is hunted all the year 

 Sportsmen. round; there is no season when he 

 is spared. He is shot, caught in traps, poisoned, 

 dug out of his burrow and killed with a common 

 club, baited by Hounds, driven out of the earth with 

 prongs, in short, he is being exterminated in every 

 possible way. Such relentless and almost inhuman 

 persecution may be justified from the point of view 

 of a sportsman, in whose eyes the forest exists only 

 for game, but from every other point of view it is 

 very wrong. In hunting-grounds the Fox makes 

 sad havoc; but in forests and fields he is more useful 

 than otherwise; it is therefore easy to understand 

 why the sportsman hates and pursues him and why 

 the agriculturist, who does not hunt, interferes in 

 his behalf. 



Naturally a Fox hunt affords great pleasure to the 

 sportsman. Usually Reynard is baited by Hounds; 

 sometimes the hunter lies in wait for him and de- 

 coys him by imitating the voice of a young Hare 

 or a Mouse, or shoots him in broad moonlight near 

 a carcass. A very attractive sport is afforded by 

 him in winter on the snow-covered fields. Occa- 

 sionally he is hunted in the forest with Beagles, the 

 best passages being occupied by sportsmen. A Fox 

 wounded by a shot seldom complains; and occasion- 

 ally he performs surprising deeds. Winckell had 

 crushed a Fox's foot with a bullet, and the paw 

 hindered the Fox from running, as it kept flapping 

 against his head. At last he angrily turned his 

 head around, bit off the entire paw and proceeded 

 on his way as if nothing ailed him. The Fox, in 

 general, is extremely tenacious of life. There are 

 several instances on record where Foxes, which 

 were left as dead, jumped up and made good their 

 escape. Hunters of the Fox must exercise vigilance 

 if they would secure his "brush" as a trophy. 



