1906.
Oct. 7
(No 2)
of the hole he shook it violently as a dog does when
worrying a rat but I could not see that he had anything in
his teeth. Immediately after this he walked to the top of the
boulder and sat down on his haunches then looking off over
the open country to the south as if admiring the view.
Then he turned and came trotting evenly like a little dog
towards a (?) way that opened into the lane or road
where I was standing. As he came out into the wood road he
was within ten yards of me. Although I remained perfectly
motionless he at once saw or sensed me and turning ran
swiftly off up the road making a succession of long,
light bounds. Finally he jumped over the stone wall on
my left & disappeared in the oak woods. His fur was 
of a bleached yellowish color & seemingly thin & scanty. Even
his brush looked worn & faded. I have rarely seen so
large & gaunt a Fox. What he was doing in the
pasture I do not certainly know. As the light was fading
(it was near half an hour after sunset) I did not go
to the place where he was jumping about but I shall
examine it closely to-morrow. He must have had
either a mouse or a shrew, probably the latter. I doubt
if he ate it. I could see his muzzle rather plainly when
he raised his head after the final shake & nothing
showed in his jaws. The preliminary jumps & backward
moves I took to be playful in character. They were
very like those practised by our Irish terrier, "Larry," when
he is teasing a mouse or rat that is cut off from
its hole & unable to escape.
  (Visiting the scene of this incident next morning I found on the
top of the large boulder where the Fox sat down a Short-tailed Shrew
(Blarina brevicauda). It was a fully mature specimen in perfect pelage. It
bore no external marks of injury but the skull had been crushed & there
was a little dried blood about the mouth and nostrils.)