22 



BULLETIN 301, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Instinctively timid and distrustful, unlike dogs, they do not seem 

 capable of becoming attached to the person in charge of them. The 

 approach of a stranger makes them uneasy and usually drives them 

 into their dens, but ordinary travel along a thoroughfare a hundred 

 yards or more away gives them no apparent concern. All moving 

 objects interest them keenly. Birds alighting within their yards often 

 fall prey to their agility. If well fed they seldom fight, and when 

 they do, fatalities rarely result. In a few cases two or more have 

 turned upon another and killed or badly crippled it, but usually this 

 has been due to underfeeding or to improper handling during the 

 mating season. When believing themselves unobserved, they play 

 together or lie contentedly stretched at length in the sun. 



Cold weather has no terrors for foxes, and snow is a delight. At 

 times of alternate freezing and thawing they should not be allowed to 



lie down on snow as they may thus seri- 

 ously injure their coats. They rarely 

 make determined efforts to escape from 

 inclosures except during the first few 

 days of captivity. Then they dig for 

 perhaps a foot at the extreme edge of 

 the inclosure where the wire enters the 

 ground, but if the wire is merely turned 

 in at the bottom (fig. 18) they dig only 

 in the angle, and obviously can not 

 accomplish much, as they must work 

 by thrusting their paws through the 

 meshes. If stones are placed along 

 the edge of the wire, foxes make no 

 effort to dig out, as tunneling under 

 seems never to occur to them. The 

 overhang at the top of the fence ordinarily prevents escape in that 

 direction, but an unusually heavy fall of snow sometimes enables 

 foxes to reach an elevation from which they can leap upon the 

 overhang and scramble out. In several cases, however, they have 

 returned to the inclosures and climbed back or have been caught in 

 traps set for them near by. When at large, foxes do not often climb 

 trees, but in captivity they do so readily, often lying for hours 

 curled up in the thick branches of a spruce or fir. 



HANDLING FOXES. 



Unless foxes are diseased or injured, it is rarely necessary to lay 

 hands on them. When one is to be removed from its yard, ordi- 

 narily it can be first driven into its den and thence into a small 

 handling box having a sliding door at one end and strong wire net- 

 ting covering one side. In this manner it can be transferred without 



Fig. 21.— Chute for connecting yards. It 

 can be closed by inserting a sliding door 

 in the slot. 



