20 HOMES ■WITHOUT HANDS. 



absolutely required for its passage, while the former is quite 

 satisfied if he can pass through the tvinnel with tolerable 

 rapidity. 



Sometimes, however, the animal is not fortunate enough to find 

 any ready-made habitation, and in such cases sets determinately 

 to work, and scoops out a burrow on its own account. Herein 

 it lies asleep aU day, as is the custom with most predaceous ani- 

 mals, and only sallies forth at night. Herein the mother pro- 

 duces and nurtures her young, and sometimes on a summer's 

 evening, the whole family, the father, mother, and cubs, come out 

 to enjoy the fresh air. They never wander far from the mouth of 

 the burrow, and as the young are gamesome little creatures, as 

 playful as puppies, and much prettier, and the mother helps her 

 young ones in their sports as a good mother ought to do, the 

 group presents a very pretty sight. When young the cubs are 

 certainly not prepossessing, and scarcely any one would take the 

 sprawling grey-coated, broad-muzzled creatures, with their little 

 short pointed tails and stumpy ears, for the young of the Fox, 

 with its ruddy fur, its active limbs, its narrow muzzle, its full 

 bushy tail, and its erect, intelligent-looking ears. 



Though there is but one burrow for the nursery, the Fox gene- 

 rally has access to " earths" as they are called, at considerable 

 distances apart, and, as all huntsmen know, when he finds that 

 one of his earths is stopped, will straightway start off for another 

 which may probably be at a distance of several miles, not to 

 mention his accurate knowledge of drains and similar places of 

 refuge. Therefore to keep an old experienced Fox above ground 

 is a task which needs great skill and considerable endurance, 

 for he is by no means above availing himself of clefts in rocks, 

 should the country be of a mountainous nature, or using holes 

 in decayed trees ; and, indeed, if within a radius of some ten or 

 twelve miles there is a cavity which is capable of concealing 

 a Fox, the cunning animal is sure to know it. 



The Weasels have been said to be great burrowers, but I am 

 inclined to think that very few of them are in the habit of 

 tunnelling below the ground. The Otter is generally thought to 

 be a burrower because it has certain caves in the river banks, to 

 which it flies for refuge when pursued, and in which it produces 

 and rears its young. But I believe that in everj"^ instance the 



