I doubt if he ate it, I could see his muzzle rather plainly 
when he raised his head after the final shake and nothing 
showed in his jaws. The preliminary jiomps and backward 
moves I tool to be playful in character.. They were very 
like those practiced by our Irish terrier, "Larry", 
when he is teasing a mouse or rat that is cut off from 
its hole and unable to escape, 
(Yisiting the scene of this incident next mornir^, 
I found on the top of the l8.rge boulder where the Fox 
sat down a Short-tailed Shrew( Blarine Brevicauda ). 
It was a fully mature specimen in perfect pelage * It 
bore no external marks of injury but the skull had been 
crushed and there was a little diied blood about the 
mouth and nostrils.) 
