5 6 ° 
CARNIVORES. 
are characteristic of the eastern districts of the United States, the far rarer 
silver fox is a northern form, a large number of its skins coming from the upper 
reaches of the Mississippi, and the districts to the north-west of the Missouri 
River. 
So much has been written about the habits of the English fox 
Habits ° 
that our remarks on this subject will be brief. Although the fox is 
by no means averse to taking possession of the deserted burrow of a rabbit or a 
badger, it generally excavates its own “ earth,” in which it spends a considerable 
portion of its time. As all hunters know, foxes, however, frequently prefer to 
live out in the woods, those with a northern aspect being, it is said, generally 
avoided. Sometimes these animals will prefer a thick hedgerow, or a dry ditch, 
while we have known them to select the tall tussocks of coarse grass in swampy 
AN INTERESTING DISCOVERT. 
meadows as a resting-place; and they have also been found in straw-ricks, where 
it is on record that in one instance the cubs have been born. The breeding-time 
is in April, and the usual number of young in a litter is from four to six. The 
prey of the fox consists, writes Bell, “ of hares, rabbits, various kinds of ground 
birds, particularly partridges, of which it destroys great numbers; and it often 
makes its way into the farm-yard, committing sad havoc among the poultry. It 
has been known not unfrequently to carry off a young lamb. When other food 
fails the fox will, however, have recourse to rats and mice, and even frogs and 
worms; while on occasion beetles are largely consumed, and, on the sea-shore, fish, 
crabs, and molluscs form a part of its diet.. Carrion seems never to come amiss; 
while the old story of the fox and the grapes alludes to the fruit-eating propensities 
of these animals.” The usual cry of the fox is a yelping bark. The well-known 
