AMERICAN RED POX. 
267 
YOU, Mr. Fox has profited by the awful example before him — he picks the 
bird before he eats it. Moral — never swallow what you cannot digest. 
But, to be serious, I do not mean to ridicule the fact, which I cannot but 
believe with the testimony which accompanies it, but if it be new, which I 
cannot answer for, it might in its plain, unvarnished form, without being 
announced in pedantic Latin, afford too tempting a morceau for the snarl- 
ing critic. The fish are said to reach sometimes the length of foui’-feet, 
with a mouth twenty-two inches wide, they are scaled, and are said to re- 
semble, somewhat, the sea cat-fish, with which I am not acquainted. The 
Fox on the beach when hunted by hounds, resorts to his usual trick of 
taking the water, to throw the dogs off the scent, by following the retreat- 
ing surf, so that its return may efface his trail, then lying down among the 
sand hills to rest, while the dogs are at fault. In the woods on the main 
land both Red and Gray Foxes are abundant, the latter rather predominat- 
ing. The Foxes are abundant on some of the beaches, and generally may 
be procured. Mr. Spencer, of Mount Holly, has been on a party when 
five were killed, but I do not know where, nor whether it was this season 
or before.” 
We have not been able to procure the fish which is alluded to m the 
foregoing, but have no doubt of the correctness of the account. The Red 
Fox will e.at fish as well as birds, and when hard pressed does not refuse 
even carrion. It is, therefore, probable that the discovery of the bird 
within the dead fish, may be the result of accident rather than of instinct, 
reason, or keenness of smell on the part of the Fox ; for when he begins 
to devour a fish he must soon find the more savoury bird in its stomach, 
and being fonder of fowl than of fish, he would of course eat the bird and 
leave the latter. A Fox after having in this way discovered coots, gulls, 
or any other bird, would undoubtedly examine any dead fish that he came 
across, in hopes of similar good luck. Hence the foxes on the beaches have, 
we suppose, acquired the habit of extracting birds from the stomachs of 
such fish as have swallowed them, and are cast ashore dead by the storms 
on the coast ; and they also at times get a plentiful meal from the dead 
birds that float ashore. We received a beautiful specimen of the Red Fox, 
in the flesh, from our friend Mr. Harris, not long after the foregoing letter, 
and our figure was drawn from it. We represented the animal just 
caught in a steel-trap. 
The Red Fox brings forth from four to six young at a litter, although 
not unfrequently as many as seven. The young are covered, for some 
time after they are born, with a soft woolly fur, quite unlike the coat of the 
grown animal, and generally of a pale rufous colour. Frequently, how- 
ever, the cubs in a litter are mixed in colour, there being some red and some 
