148 



THE DOG TRIBE. 



to approach his victim or to hide himself, 

 and knows so well how to obliterate his 

 trail that the best dogs are often at fault. 

 Hunger seldom blinds him to danger, but 

 when he has the opportunity he kills without 

 mercy and far beyond his immediate needs. 



In our civilized countries, in which the 

 stronger carnivores are altogether wantinof, the 

 fox is certainly the 

 deadliest enemy of 

 all kinds of game, 

 for he attacks even 

 the young of the 

 roebuck, without 

 sparing other 

 smaller creatures. 

 The hunters pursue 

 him all the more 

 eagerly because he 

 practises so many 

 tricks upon them, 

 and as in the case of 

 the wolf all methods 

 seem good that lead 

 to his extinction.^ 



But if we are 

 bound to acknow- 

 ledge all these de- 

 vastations which 

 the fox commits in 

 the poultry-yard, and must also place to his 

 account the few bunches of grapes which, 

 when they do not hang too high, he consumes 

 for dessert, after he has regaled himself by 

 night on a cock or a duck, yet it must also 

 be admitted that in our country, at least, the 

 fox lives chiefly on field-mice, of which he 

 devours remarkable quantities. In spring, 

 when the young ones have been weaned, the 

 fox is glad to find larger prey, but these de- 

 predations among fowls, partridges, young 

 hares, and so forth, usually last at most one 

 or two months. All the rest of the year 

 mice form his chief food, and then it scarcely 

 happens except by accident, when a peculiarly 



* In Germany, to wit, not of course in England. — Tr. 



Fig. 65. — The Corsac (Cams eorsac). 



favourable opportunity presents itself, that he 

 snatches a bird or makes a feast on a young 

 hare. The farmer who looks well after his 

 fowls by day and at night shuts them up in 

 poultry -yards inaccessible to the fox and 

 watched into the bargain by a good dog, 

 should consequently only rejoice at the ser- 

 vices which Master Reynard renders him in 



ridding his fields of 

 mice. Finally, when 

 we consider that 

 game undoubtedly 

 does more harm 

 than good to the 

 agriculturist, we 

 might draw thevery 

 unwelcome conclu- 

 sion for lovers of 

 the chase, that the 

 fox is to be ranked 

 with those animals 

 which confer the 

 greatest benefits 

 on agriculture. 



Foxes captured 

 young have often 

 been tamed and 

 brought up along 

 with dogs. But the 

 strong disagreeable 

 odour proceeding from the anal scent-gland, 

 and their pitiful howling, are so unpleasant, 

 that these experiments have always ultimately 

 been abandoned. 



The Corsac {Canis eorsac), fig. 65, is a 

 smaller fox, with rounder pupils and a shorter 

 tail, which has adapted itself to life in the 

 steppes and deserts of northern and central 

 Asia. The extremely thick fur is red in 

 summer, lighter and somewhat grayish in 

 winter, the under-surface yellowish. A lighter 

 patch above the eye reminds us of the mark- 

 ings of most badger -hounds. The corsac 

 has a very different mode of life from that of 

 the fox. He digs no hole for himself, sleeps 

 where he can, often in the burrows of the 



