2>]6 HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



The FOX. 



THIS lively and crafty animal is common to every 

 part of Great-Britain ; and is fo well known, as 

 not to require a particular description. 



M. Buffon has taken great pains to prove, that the 

 Dog and the Fox will not breed together. For this pur- 

 pofe, he kept two males and a female for a confiderable 

 time, and tried to make the males copulate with bitches, 

 which they uniformly refufed ; and from thence he con- 

 cludes, that no mixture can take place between the two 

 fpecies. But it mould be remembered, that the Foxes 

 were in a ftate of confinement ; and of courfe, many cir- 

 cumftances might concur to difguft them, and render the 

 experiment abortive. In confirmation of this, we need 

 only obferve, that the fame Foxes, which, when at liber- 

 ty, darted on the poultry with their ufual eagernefs, ne- 

 ver attempted to touch a fingle fowl after they were 

 chained : And we are told further, « that a living hen 

 was generally fixed near them for a whole night; and, 

 though food was kept from them for many hours, yet, in 

 fpite of hunger and opportunity, they never forgot that 

 they were chained, and difturbed not the hen." Now 

 if any one mould be fo hardy as to aflert from this, that 

 Foxes have a natural averfion to poultry, one may eafily 

 conceive how little credit would be given to the conclu- 

 fion, and how much laughter it would excite. We juft 

 mention this, to mew, that experiments of this kind, 

 where Nature is thwarted in her procefs, or reftrained in 

 any of her operations, are not always to be depended up- 

 on. — That the Fox and the Dog will breed together, is a 

 fa6l, too well known in feveral parts of the North of 

 England, to admit of the fmalleft doubt. — It is a common 



