22 
BULLETIN 301, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
Instinctively timid and distrustful, unlike dogs, they do not seem 
capable of becoming attached to the person in charge of them. The 
approach of a stranger makes them uneasy and usually chives them 
into their dens, but ordinary travel along a thoroughfare a hundred 
yards or more away gives them no apparent concern. All moving 
objects interest them keenly. Birds alighting within their yards often 
fall prey to their agility. If well fed they seldom fight, and when 
they do, fatalities rarely result. In a few cases two or more have 
turned upon another and killed or badly crippled it, but usually this 
has been due to underfeeding or to improper handling during the 
mating season. When believing themselves unobserved, they play 
together or lie contentedly stretched at length in the sun. 
Cold weather has no terrors for foxes, and snow is a delight. At 
times of alternate freezing and thawing they should not be allowed to 
lie down on snow as they may thus seri- 
ously injure their coats. They rarely 
make determined efforts to escape from 
inclosures except during the first few 
days of captivity. Then they dig for 
perhaps a foot at the extreme edge of 
the inclosure where the wire enters the 
ground, but if the wire is merely turned 
in at the bottom (fig. 18) they dig only 
in the angle, and obviously can not 
accomplish much, as they must work 
by thrusting their paws through the 
meshes. If stones are placed along 
the edge of the wire, foxes make no 
effort to dig out, as tunneling under 
seems never to occur to them. The 
overhang at the top of the fence ordinarily prevents escape in that 
direction, but an unusually heavy fall of snow sometimes enables 
foxes to reach an elevation from which they can leap upon the 
overhang and scramble out. In several cases, however, they have 
returned to the inclosures and climbed back or have been caught in 
traps set for them near by. When at large, foxes do not often climb 
trees, but in captivity they do so readily, often lying for hours 
curled up in the thick branches of a spruce or fir. 
HANDLING FOXES. 
Unless foxes are diseased or injured, it is rarely necessary to lay 
hands on them. When one is to be removed from its yard, ordi- 
narily it can be first driven into its den and thence into a small 
handling box having a sliding door at one end and strong wire net- 
ting covering one side. In this manner it can be transferred without 
Fig. 21. — Chute for connecting yards. It 
can be closed by inserting a sliding door 
in the slot. 
