62 THE FOX. 



neglected. Also, he acts as guardian of the den, 

 making note of any strange figures that appear, 

 and warning the vixen in case of danger. It 

 is to be feared that in the days of spring-time 

 plenty he often destroys more food than is needed, 

 going out on long excursions of piracy, and earning 

 a bad name for himself. Should the vixen meet 

 her fate while the cubs are small, their father nobly 

 takes charge of them, carrying them perhaps to 

 some safer locality, and caring for them in the best 

 way he knows.* 



In the mountains of the north the parent foxes 

 generally work their den so that a root or a boulder 

 obstructs the entrance not far down, and here, where 

 the burrow cannot be enlarged, they take up a stand 

 should their home be invaded by an enemy. Very 

 often the fox-diggers, having dug down a goodly 

 distance, and thinking themselves near the nest 

 containing the young foxes, find to their annoyance 

 that they cannot dig farther owing to the presence 

 of a huge boulder which obstructs the way, and far 

 under which, in all probability, the cubs are hidden. 

 Even should the diggers find the nest, they are by 

 no means sure of the cubs, for generally there are 

 side-pockets, or ' hide-holes,' running off in different 

 directions, often so small that they become filled 

 in during the digging, and so escape notice ; 

 but at the end of each of these secret corridors 

 is huddled a little fox, who squeezed himself in 

 immediately the digging commenced. When an 

 enlarged rabbit-burrow is used as the earth, the 



*This is not a random statement. I have known the dog-fox to 

 return to a completely buried earth, after the vixen had been killed and 

 the cubs dug out, and to open it ; and keepers in the Highlands set 

 traps in anticipation of the dog-fox's return. If the cubs are left, it has 

 been proved over and over again that he will carry them away ; every 

 cowboy of the prairies knows this. H. M. B. 



