56c 



CARNIVORES. 



Habits. 



are characteristic of the eastern districts of the United States, the far rarer 

 silver fox is a northern form, a lai'ge number of its skins coming from the uj^per 

 reaches of the Mississippi, and the districts to the north-west of the Missouri 

 River. 



So nuich has been written about the habits of the English fox 

 that our remarks on this subject will be brief. Although the fox is 

 by no means averse to taking possession of the deserted burrow of a rabbit or a 

 badger, it generally excavates its own " earth," in which it spends a considerable 

 portion of its time. As all hunters know, foxes, however-, frequently prefer to 

 live out in the woods, those witli a northern aspect being, it is said, generally 

 avoided. Sometimes these animals will prefer a thick hedgerow, or a dry ditch, 

 while we have known them to select the tall tussocks of coarse grass in swampy 



a:j ixteresting discoveri. 



meadows as a resting-place : and they have also been found in straw-ricks, where 

 it is on record tliat in one instance the cubs have been born. The breeding-time 

 is in April, and the usual number of young in a litter is from four to six. The 

 prey of the fox consists, writes Bell, " of hares, rabbits, various kinds of ground 

 birds, particularly partridges, of which it destroys great numbers : and it often 

 makes its way into the farm-yard, committing sad havoc among the poultry. It 

 has been known not unfrequently to carry off a young lamb. When other food 

 fails the fox will, however, have recoui-se to rats and mice, and even frogs and 

 worms ; while on occasion beetles are largely consumed, and, on the sea-shore, fish, 

 crabs, and molluscs form a part of its diet. Carrion seems never to come amiss ; 

 while the old stor}?- of the fox and the grapes alludes to the fruit-eating propensities 

 of these animals." The usual cry of the fox is a yelping bark. The well-known 



