SOMETHING ABOUT FOXES.
That always entertaining writer about birds and animals, J. G. Wood, has a pleasant paper on "Foxes" in the Child's Pictorial. The author of "Homes without Hands" says:—
Many foxes have been known to climb trees, and hide among the branches, where no dog could smell them. Only a few months before these lines were written, the East Kent foxhounds met near Dover. The master of the hunt had been told that foxes had been seen to run up a tree, which was pointed out. A man was sent up the tree, and out came a fox, which was hidden among some ivy about twenty feet from the ground. The animal was chased, but after a while the scent failed and the fox escaped. The hunt then returned to the tree, and again sent a man up it. Presently a second fox came tumbling out of the ivy, but mistook his distance, and jumped into the middle of the hounds, which tore it to pieces before it could recover from the fall. The man continued to search the tree, and a third fox leaped out, and was killed close to the South Foreland.
In December, 1885, a fox was found near Oswestry, and after being chased for some time, it ran up a tree, to the height of at least forty feet, and hid itself among the ivy with which the tree was clothed. It was soon turned out of its shelter, and, after running for about half an hour, got away from the hounds, probably by some equally clever trick.
There are foxes known which have been hunted for several seasons and never taken; and those who have seen them run, say that the animals do not seem in the least afraid of the hounds, but trot on quite gently for some time, knowing that, in the end, they will give their enemies the slip.
Mr. Webster relates an amusing story about a cunning old American fox. It had been chased over and over again, and always escaped near the same place, namely, a wooden fence outside a plantation, which led into a thick forest. Hounds were brought from great distances in order to catch this fox, but never succeeded. The fox always made its bed in the middle of a large field, and did not try to hide, but gave the hounds a good run, and then disappeared at the fence.
Now, in America there are no hedges, the fields being divided by railed fences. Westward, where wood is almost valueless, the "snake" fence is used, but in the more cultivated parts the fence is made by fixing two strong stakes in the ground, so as to cross each other like the letter X, and nailing them together where they cross. Long poles are then laid on the crossed stakes, so that the fence can be made to any height which is most convenient, the poles being seldom nailed, but held in their place by their own weight.
THE FOX SEES THE EAR, THE RABBIT SEES THE TAIL.
Now, foxes often run along a fence, or the top of a wall, as far as the end. Then they go back for some distance on their own track, and leap off the wall as far as they can, so as to mislead the hounds. Knowing this trick, Mr. Webber took the hounds all round the fence and the plantation, but could find no signs of the fox. At last he determined to hide himself near the place, when the hounds were again set on the fox, and try to discover the trick. After a while the fox came quite slowly until he reached the fence. Then he jumped on the top rail, and ran along it for about two hundred yards, until he came opposite a dead tree, nearly sixteen feet from the fence. He paused for a moment, and, with a tremendous jump, leaped upon a tree, alighting on a large knot on the side of the trunk. Then he ran up the trunk, which was slightly sloping, and entered a hollow at the top, he lay hid, no one even suspecting that he could leap from a fence to the tree, much less run up it. This feat was the more wonderful, because ivy does not grow out of doors in America, so that there seemed to be no foot-hold. Indeed, had it not been for the knot, the fox could not have climbed the tree.
Mr. Webber was so pleased with the cleverness of the fox that he would not betray the trick, but amused himself on many occasions by watching the fox baffle the hounds.
Sometimes the mother fox chooses a hollow tree, instead of a burrow, for her nursery.
In April, 1868, a strange discovery was made in Warwickshire, seven dead cubs having been found in the top of a pollard oak. It was clear that the mother had been killed, and that the poor little cubs had died of hunger.
The cubs, when very young, are odd-looking little creatures—not in the least like their parents. They are pale brown in colour, have short, snub noses, like those of pug dogs, and little, short, pointed tails, not at all like the beautiful "brushes" into which they will grow in course of time.
The courage of the fox is wonderful. A fox was on one occasion sent to Mr. Bartlett for the purpose of being stuffed. It had only three feet, and, on opening it, Mr. Bartlett found the missing foot in its stomach! The animal had clearly been taken in a trap, and had freed itself by biting off the foot by which it was caught. We can understand why it should bite off the foot by which it was detained, but why it should eat its own foot seems rather puzzling. I am inclined to think that it did so by mere instinct, which made it eat any morsel of bleeding flesh that came between its jaws.
[If foxes are only fit to be hunted down, why are they preserved for that cruelty?—Ed.]