THE EDUCATION OF THE FOX 29 



Before the young fox wanders far from home 

 it has learned something of stalking and killing 

 its food. It has kept its muscles lithe and supple 

 by ceaseless play. It has learned caution, yet has 

 not an old head on young shoulders, for no animal 

 learns more by experience of life than the fox. 

 Trappers tell us that old foxes learn to spring the 

 trap and take the bait, and to avoid even the most 

 tempting bait that has the least taint of man — whose 

 odour is at least as unpleasant to the fox as his 

 is to us. I have elsewhere given my reasons for 

 thinking that after a long experience many old 

 foxes seldom or never allow themselves to be hunted 

 at all. But still the young fox has been taught 

 much and remembers more, and when he leaves 

 the earth and follows his mother on her hunting 

 expeditions, the next lesson he has to learn is to 

 know the country thoroughly. The foxes that have 

 no mother never learn this. Vixens, and especially 

 old ones, are for this reason necessary to sport. 

 How few such there are in some countries we know. 

 Even where the vixens are not shot as soon as the 

 cubs can feed themselves, they are often young and 

 thus know but little country — nor have they need to. 

 The keeper, in perfect good faith that he is a true 

 preserver, because he has killed no foxes, shoots 



