316 
tropical kinds is a very serious matter 
indeed. Despite the fact that in the species 
in which the tail is light it is generally 
carried straight, whenever the sting 1s about 
to be brought into use the tail is curved 
over the back and the wound inflicted by a 
forward thrust of its weapon. Apparently 
when male scorpions fight with one another 
the sting is invariably brought into use, as 
in our first illustration; but its effects are 
much less severe in such instances than 
when other creatures are attacked, for it has 
been proved that scorpion-poison is innocuous 
to the creatures by which it is produced. 
This, it may be added, effectually disposes 
of the old legend that a scorpion when 
surrounded by a ring of fire (from the effects 
of which, it may be incidentally remarked, 
it would speedily perish) puts an end to 
its misery by turning its tail over its back 
and stinging itself to death. Although 
apparently unprepossessing animals for pets, 
My. Pocock, the new Superimtendent of the 
“Zoo,” says that scorpions can easily be 
tamed and taught to know thei master. 
We 
THosE who are fortunate enough to be 
owners of a country residence 
oung : ae ceo 
ORES: situated alongside of a fox- 
covert cannot fail to be delighted 
with the playful gambols of the fox-cubs 
when they leave their “earths” in early 
evening to wander about in the neighbour- 
hood and to be taught the business of life 
PS 
ens 
SANE 
SCORPIONS AT REST; MALE 
Animal Life 
by the vixen. Few persons, by the way, 
know the reason why the female fox is called 
by the latter name; and yet, as Sir Herbert 
Maxwell has told us m the third volume of 
that delightful series of books entitled 
“Memories of the Months,” it is merely the 
south-west country pronunciation of foxen, 
said to be the Saxon feminine of fox (see 
also Johnston’s “ British Mammals’). Per- 
haps we may be permitted to suggest that 
it may really be a Saxon plural, as in 
‘oxen,’ and that the singular was ‘‘vix.” 
Curiously enough, in that well-known work 
“ Bell’s British Quadrupeds” there appears 
to be no mention of the fact that fox-cubs, 
like puppies, are born blind. This omission 
is, however, supplied in Sir Harry Johnston’s 
volume of the Wobwn Library, m which 
we ave told that they do not open their eyes 
until about the tenth day. 
_ As regards the playful habits of the cubs, 
the following extract from a correspondent 
of Bell may be given: “ We have ourselves 
noticed the playfulness of young foxes, and 
may observe that they can be watched 
without giving them the least alarm, # the 
observer be elevated only a few feet from 
the ground. Seated in the top of a pollard 
ash, we have watched for an hour at a time, 
without exciting the least suspicion, several 
half-grown foxes, although they were con- 
tinually within a few feet of us.” 
Although differmg somewhat in colour, 
fox-cubs ave otherwise miniatures of their 
pavents—veritable “chips of the old block.” 
NS 
AND FEMALE. 
