THE FOX. 69 



of a tree in the centre of a lonely forest. Evi- 

 dently the fox spent much leisure time in the 

 vicinity of his secret store, for he had amused 

 himself by stripping the bark from adjacent dead 

 trees in order to nose out the grubs which lay 

 beneath it. (Personal observation.) 



LENGTH OF LIFE. 



The fox is a hard-living animal, and, like all 

 the canines, is not remarkable for longevity. He 

 is old at ten years. Eight years is probably 

 Reynard's allotted span of life, for immediately 

 infirmity sets in, immediately his senses lose their 

 keen edge, he inevitably succumbs to one or 

 other of his foes. He is so much dependent 

 on his sight for his living that were this to fail 

 in the least, hunger would hasten the natural 

 decline of his health, and if not killed he would 

 probably, in his weakened state, fall a victim to 

 red mange, and die a month or two later. 



NUMBERS. 



Taking the number of foxes killed annually 

 before hounds in Great Britain as 12,000, and 

 the number killed in other ways as 10,000, making 

 up a total of 22,000 foxes killed annually over 

 an area of 80,000 square miles, it is possible to 

 arrive at a rough estimate of the fox population 

 of the country. On St George Island, Behring 

 Sea, foxes are fed and protected for their pelts. 

 The stock consists of about 270 mated pairs, 

 and it is found that not more than 500 pelts can 

 be marketed annually without reducing the stock. 

 On this basis it may be argued that 11,880 pairs 

 of foxes breed annually in Great Britain, though 

 it is reasonable to suppose that this is a very 



