Sept. 23, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
479 
THE FOX IN AUSTRALIA. 
The report that the foxes in Queensland have 
become so numerous, bold and rapacious as to 
constitute a serious difficulty in the sheep rais¬ 
ing industry is one which cannot be regarded 
with surprise by any who had elemental knowl¬ 
edge of the facts and could apply to them the 
knowledge gained by observation of allied facts. 
The original ancestors of the Australian race of 
foxes were imported somewhere about half a 
century ago by Mr. Watson, scion of the famous 
Irish hunting family, and for a long period a 
revered leader of Colonial sport. Those first 
vulpine immigrants were brought out from the 
old country at considerable expense and turned 
down with an eye to the hunting needs of an 
early future. For a good many years the new 
colonists fulfilled the part assigned to them and 
were regarded with the same feelings of affec¬ 
tion, no doubt in somewhat intensified degree, 
as their fellows at home. Probably they took 
pretty heavy toll of the ground-building birds 
of their new country, but their little peccadilloes 
were regarded with indulgence, as those of the 
great sport provider deserve to be. We do not 
think that the importations of fox for hunting 
purposes were many. Nor indeed were the 
numbers procured as a corrective to the rabbit 
plague very considerable. Some consignments 
of foxes were obtained and turned down by en¬ 
terprising colonists in various regions when the 
rabbit had proved its right to be treated as a 
serious nuisance, but the imported stock bred 
freely, throve well and promised to be all that 
was required without reinforcement from 
Europe. That promise appears to have been 
more than fulfilled. Not only is the Australian 
fox more numerous than the conscience of 
sheep farmers recommends. Responding to the 
propitious conditions of food and climate, he is 
become larger, more powerful and. as we have 
said, bolder and more rapacious. It is the ex¬ 
ception for a fox to attack lambs in Britain; 
cases of lamb killing undoubtedly occur, and it 
is, we think, recognized that these are most fre¬ 
quent among the flocks fed in the hill districts. 
There, the foxes are of the "fell” or "grey¬ 
hound” type, larger and fiercer than their low¬ 
land brethren, while the sheep of the mountain 
breeds are smaller than the sheep of the lowly- 
ing districts. True, the difference in size be¬ 
tween a hill fox and him of the grass countries 
is less than the difference between say, an im¬ 
proved Leicester and a Cheviot, but the relative 
differences are enough to make the hill fox an 
enemy to be reckoned with in the fell districts, 
while the lowland fox can be regarded without 
concern by the flock master of the grass coun¬ 
tries. Now, when foxes are required, either for 
re-stocking a hunting country or for export, 
they are generally procured from those parts of 
Scotland where foxhounds are not, and the 
vulpine race is one of stalwarts. We think, 
could their antecedents be traced, it would be 
found that the majority of the foxes from which 
the Australian race has descended were Scottish 
hill foxes; and these have so far responded to 
the favorable conditions under which they have 
been born and reared that they are become a 
race of formidable sheep slayers—lamb slayers 
at all events. Thus once more the colonist of 
to-day is paying the bill drawn upon him by a 
short-sighted parent. The Australian fox has 
not lost his ancestral taste for rabbit; but his 
achievements as a rabbit-killer make small im¬ 
pression upon the hordes which surround him. 
Moreover, even foxes enjoy a change of diet, 
and there is much reason to think that a diet 
of Iamb is breeding a preference for that meat 
over rabbit. The fox plague is a development 
of the last few years only. The report of the 
Chief Inspector of Stock for Queensland in 
1898 does not contain mention of foxes. If the 
fox gave any trouble then his misdeeds were 
eclipsed by those of the dingo (of which 26,000 
scalps were tendered during that year) and com¬ 
pletely overshadowed by those of the mar¬ 
supials, kangaroos, wallabies and their kin, of 
which nearly one and a half million were re¬ 
ported killed, but the number killed and not re¬ 
ported was probably large. Now it would seem 
the fox must be ranked with the dingo as a pest, 
and a price set upon his mask.—The Asian. 
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