QUADRUPEDS. 29 
when his choice food, the chicken, is not accessible, he 
devours animal food of all kinds, even serpents, lizards, 
frogs, toads ; and if his habitation be near the water, he 
even contents himself with shellfish. In France and Italy 
he does a great deal of damage in vineyards, being very 
fond of grapes, and spoiling many for the choice of one 
bunch : his stratagems are well known, and need not to be 
related here. The female fox produces but once a year, and 
seldom has more than four or five cubs at a litter. The 
first year the young is called a Cub, the second year a 
Fox, the third year an Old Fox. The tail of the Fox 
is called the brush. 
THE WOLF, (Canis Lupes,) 
When hungry, is an undaunted and most ferocious inha- 
bitant of the woods, but a coward when the stimulus of 
appetite is no longer in action ; he delights to roam in 
mountainous countries, and is a great enemy to sheep and 
goats; the watchfulness of dogs can hardly prevent his 
depredations, and he often dares to visit the haunts of 
men, howling at the gates of cities and towns. His head 
and neck are of a cinerous colour, and the rest of a pale 
yellowish brown. He commonly lives to the age of fif- 
teen or twenty years. He possesses a most exquisite 
power of smelling his prey at a great distance. Wolves 
are found nearly everywhere, except in the British Islands, 
