PUPPIES AND FOX-CUBS 223 



more susceptible to this horrible complaint than they 

 were fifty years ago. They are more generally 

 hunted and disturbed, and their increasing daily 

 fear compels them to drag much of their food 

 rabbits, rats, and poultry into the earth to eat it, 

 and what should only be a sleeping chamber and 

 place of refuge becomes a receptacle for much dis- 

 gusting refuse. This is only in winter. In the 

 spring they quickly learn that hunting is over, and 

 leave the tainted earths. 



Wolf-cubs are dropped at the end of April or early 

 in May, and it is curious to note the progressive scale 

 of fecundity. The fox seldom has more than five in 

 a litter ; a wolf, according to Tschudi, has been known 

 to have nine ; and a greyhound bitch will sometimes 

 produce twelve puppies. The likeness between wolf- 

 cubs and Chow-dog puppies at the age of two months 

 is remarkable ; though the young wolves have better 

 feet and straighter legs, it would be difficult to tell 

 them apart. Fox-cubs are playful little creatures, 

 but even when taken very early seldom acquire the 

 "jollity" which characterises puppies, or even wolf- 

 cubs, which, though they are rather quarrelsome 

 with each other, play and romp in captivity just as 

 boisterously as the offspring of a collie or a retriever. 

 In several of the large Continental zoological gardens 

 a litter of wolf-cubs is produced every year, and is one 

 of the sights of the season. The cubs are nearly black, 

 with sharp noses, pricked-up ears, and long tails, which 

 they often carry high as a foxhound does, a habit 

 they have in common with very young puppies of 



