148 WILD ANIMALS WORTH STALKING 



they are able to follow her any reasonable distance. 

 When cubs are a month or six weeks old it is not 

 unusual for the vixen to distribute them about 

 into two or three different earths, two or three 

 probably in each, and sometimes these earths 

 may be as far as a mile apart, but more often quite 

 close. Much depends on what there is available. 



Vixens prove themselves very devoted mothers 

 when the lives of their youngsters are at stake, 

 although there is little to fear beyond man and 

 dogs. It is curious, but nevertheless a fact, that 

 few Terriers will face and fight a vixen with cubs. 

 A Terrier used for bolting Foxes, and perhaps good 

 enough to kill one at other times, will seldom tackle 

 a vixen with cubs; in fact, it is she who becomes 

 the attacking party, and not the attacked, as was 

 the case before the cares of a family rested upon 

 her. 



Once, while out ferreting, a keeper came across 

 a big sand-earth, which a Terrier seemed very keen 

 to enter. Thinking it had probably been worked 

 by a Badger, the dog was let go, but before he had 

 got a yard in he pushed himself out backwards in a 

 great hurry, followed by a vixen who had only 

 just laid up her cubs there. So determined did 

 her ladyship seem to drive him quite off the 

 premises that she followed him for thirty yards 

 out. This same Terrier had previously, and has 

 since, bolted many Foxes. 



