362 Fur-bearing Foxes. 



any characters sufficiently defined to justify our making a sepa- 

 ration specifically between the kitt-fox common to North 

 America and the " corsac-fox.," a native of Tartary. 



The food of this singular fox is of the most varied 

 character ; sometimes it devours prairie-mice, and the smaller 

 kinds of spermophiles ; when luck befriends its efforts, a grouse 

 is nabbed^ and then the hunter feasts royally * but when times 

 become disagreeably hard, and the larder is badly stocked or 

 altogether empty., then in these straits grasshoppers and field 

 crickets (Aclieta nigra) are greedily devoured, and even old 

 leather, or the hide of an animal, hair and all, comes not 

 amiss, in the absence of more toothsome viands. The kitt- 

 fox is a thief by nature and profession ; hence anything, or 

 I may say everything stealable, is most unscrupulously appro- 

 priated. Should you in an unguarded moment tether your horse 

 with a lasso or hide "lariat," and a kitt-fox discovers your 

 imprudence, you will most certainly find only the remnants of 

 the tether; the horse which you expected to find safely fastened 

 has gone you know not where. The robber, having gnawed 

 the tether line in two parts, feasts himself upon that portion 

 attached to the picket, or tree stump, to which you so carefully 

 tied it. 



If a hunter quits his camp in the morning, heedlessly 

 leaving his mocassins or saddle, or food of any sort, within 

 the reach of quadruped thieves, the first to discover it is pretty 

 sure to be a prowling kitt-fox. Far from being content to 

 dine respectably off tough mocassin or indigestible saddle, the 

 glutton must needs taste everything he can find, with a reckless 

 disregard to future consequences. A trapper is safe to pay 

 dearly for thus carelessly leaving his camp, and returns to 

 find his saddle with pieces bitten from out different parts of it, 

 his mocassins minus toes, his bridle-reins nibbled into sundry 

 pieces, the leather "possible sack" torn open, and its contents 

 bestrewing the grass, and, to pile up the agony still higher, 

 a dainty piece of buffalo meat that the hunter has probably 

 been mentally grilling and eating during the homeward route, 

 is borne off by the rascally kitt-fox. It is of little or no 

 use to hide anything eatable, the kitt-foxes are sure to find 

 it ; the only safe plan is to place whatever you are desnous 

 to keep upon a stage lashed securely to upright poles, and tho 

 stage must be at least six feet above the ground. I have often 

 known kitt-foxes steal the bait from out a badly set fall-trap j 

 and, moreover, they travel so swiftly and traverse such long 

 distances when searching for food, that it is never safe to leave 

 any articles within their reach, though you may feel quite 

 confident that there is not a kitt-fox anywhere in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



