188 THE COMMON FOX. 



eats cockchafers and other large insects j and repairs to the 

 sea-shore to feed on such fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and other 

 marine animals which the tide may have left upon the beach. 

 Dr. Weissenborn, who says that, in Germany, it destroys a 

 great many hamsters, notices the curious circumstance that 

 even the severest hunger cannot induce it to eat the flesh of 

 predaceous birds, though most other birds are its greatest 

 dainties ; and it has not the same objection to that of the weasel 

 tribe, cats, or other predaceous mammals. 



" On some of the sea-locks on the west of Ross-shire, the fox 

 has been observed to descend to the shore at night to feed upon 

 mussels, particularly upon the large basket- mussel (Mytilus 

 modiolus), or yoggs, as the Shetlanders call them. One morning, 

 some years ago, a man perceived a fox on the shore, and though 

 the tide was coming in, it seemed heedless, and busily engaged 

 with something. The man, after observing him for a little time, 

 went to his hut for his gun, and forthwith down to the shore, 

 and shot the fox, which was as careless of his approach as that 

 of the coming tide. On going to pick him up, he was found 

 to be held fast by the tongue between the shells of one of these 

 large mussels, which are sometimes seven inches long, and 

 adhere firmly to the crevices of rocks, or larger stones below 

 the sand, by means of a strong byssus, vulgarly called a beard. 

 Had the fox not been shot by the man, it would probably have 

 been drowned by the no less merciless tide."* 



When pursued by the huntsmen, the fox does not double, like 

 the hare, but takes a straight-forward course, which he maintains 

 with strength and perseverance, sometimes for a distance of 

 fifty miles at a stretch, without the smallest intermission, unless 

 he thinks he can enter a burrow, or go to earth, as sportsmen 

 term it. Both fox-hounds and horses, particularly the latter, 

 frequently fall victims to the ardour of the chase. Such is the 

 great strength of the fox that, in many instances, he escapes 

 the utmost efforts of his pursuers to take him, and again returns 

 to his hole in safety. But if it should happen that all shifts 

 * Abridged from the Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 227. 



