THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOX 15 



There is no suitable place that a fox will not use 

 for the purpose, and I have known cubs to be 

 found in a hayrick, under the floor of a barn, and 

 once actually underneath a house, the master of 

 which was supposed not to be too friendly to foxes. 

 Possibly the vixen selected this as being the place 

 where her enemy was least likely to look for her. 

 When, however, cubs are found in these unusual 

 places, it is probably true that they have been laid 

 up elsewhere and have been removed, as the custom 

 of the fox is, to a new resting-place. 



An interesting question meets us here : what 

 are the relations between the fox and the badger? 

 Exactly what these are is by no means clear. At first 

 we should be inclined to think that the badger and 

 fox would never get on together. The badger is the 

 most cleanly of animals : his earth is always kept sweet, 

 and he removes all droppings to little pits at some 

 distance away which he digs for the purpose. The 

 fox is far from fastidious in his habits : he leaves 

 loose feathers and bits of wool about in a way which 

 must be highly disconcerting to the orderly instincts 

 of the badger. Besides this, the fox sometimes buries 

 what he cannot eat, and leaves it until it becomes 

 high. The badger, like other tidy people, is rather 

 short in its temper, especially Mrs. Badger when she 



