322 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The Fox, then, holds an exceptional position, and it has been 

 asserted by many an enthusiastic speaker at a Hunt Dinner that 

 he is sensible of the consideration shown him. In what way, it 

 may be asked, does he give proof of this ? By abstaining from 

 depredation in the immediate neighbourhood where he is pro- 

 tected, and poaching only at a distance. Many instances of this 

 have been adduced, not only in relation to poultry and rabbits, 

 of which Foxes are particularly fond, but also in the case of 

 lambs. The hill shepherds assert that they have often known a 

 Fox to have his earth on their ground, but never to kill any 

 lambs but at a distance from home. This may savour of gratitude 

 for the protection afforded him, but it is more likely that it is 

 merely an illustration of the animal's hereditary cunning which 

 prompts him to avoid leaving traces of his work which might lead 

 to the discovery of his lair. 



A remarkable illustration of this occurred in Shropshire in 

 1881. On the 13th May in that year, Mr. Charles Nock, of 

 Norton House, Shifnal, wrote that an old dog-Fox, the vixen, and 

 three cubs about three months old had that day been unearthed 

 in his poultry-yard. They were 38 yards from the house door 

 and 22 yards from the poultry-house, and though ducks and 

 fowls were all round and about the den, not one was killed or 

 molested. 



A somewhat similar case was reported in August, 1887, by 

 Mr. B. Morris, of Bucklers, Great Tey, Essex, of a Fox which 

 had its earth in an old haulm wall in a roadside farmyard. 



"•At Tey Brook," he says, " there has been for many years 

 one of the strongest Foxes' earths in the East Essex Hunt, and the 

 Foxes have always been well cared for ; but for some reason the 

 vixen took a fancy to this old haulm wall in the bullock yard, 

 and there this year (1887) had her cubs; the wall has been made 

 thirty years or more. It is situate within twenty yards of a high 

 road much frequented, and the farm men are constantly in and 

 out, it being one of the regular farmyards on the homestead. A 

 few weeks back, when the cubs were young, a man at plough 

 close by saw the old vixen leave the kennel in the wall, and 

 go to a rabbit hole, scrape four or five young ones out, and 

 carry them all at once to the cubs ; she did not in the least 

 mind the man." 



Rabbits have no greater enemy than the Fox (except man), 



