THE FOX 145 



the Dog Fox bring food, he has been seen to leave 

 it on the earth, but more often he meets the vixen 

 some distance away with it. 



One evening a friend of mine was going to visit 

 a Fox earth where there were cubs two miles 

 distant. On his way, and not more than one 

 hundred yards from his house, a white Pheasant 

 -was sitting on her eggs in a hedge-bottom. He gave 

 a glance and saw her there as he passed. He had 

 not been in sight of the earth more than two 

 minutes when he saw the vixen come out and trot 

 down the wood ride in the direction he had come 

 from. To his surprise and annoyance in less than 

 five minutes she returned with his white Pheasant 

 in her mouth. This clearly shows that the Dog 

 Fox killed the bird immediately after the keeper 

 3iad left her on the nest, and met the vixen with it. 



Upon my friend's return, he not only found the 

 l)ird gone but the eggs too! He, no doubt, had 

 ■** champed " these up, and would probably dis- 

 jgorge them for the vixen when delivering up the 

 bird. 



It is very curious that a vixen with cubs nearly 

 always gets the food supply from a distance, 

 .although there may be easy means of getting it 

 near the earth. Mr. Bamford tells me that he 

 has many times seen Pheasants and Partridges 

 .sitting on their eggs within a hundred yards with- 

 out being molested, while in a neighbourhood a 



