The fox

Front matter

JOHNA.SEAVERNS

Fur, Feather, & Fin Series

edited by ALFRED E. T. WATSON

Preface

The design of the Fur, Feather, and Fin Series is to present monographs, as complete as they can possibly be made, on the various English birds, beasts and fishes which are generally included under the head of Game.

Books on Natural History cover such a vast number of subjects that their writers necessarily find it impossible to deal with each in a really comprehensive manner ; and it is not within the scope of such works exhaustively to discuss the animals described in the light of objects of sport. Books on sport, again, seldom treat at length of the Natural History of the creatures which are shot or otherwise taken ; and, so far as the Editor is aware, in no book hitherto published on Natural History or Sport has information been given as to the best methods of turning the contents of the bag to account.

vi PREFACE

Each volume of the present Series is, therefore, devoted to a bird, beast, or fish. The creature's origin is traced, its birth and breeding described, and all the sportsman's methods of dealing with it are set forth. In previous books of the series the subjects have only been left when on the table in the most appetising forms which the delicate science of cookery has discovered, but the culinary chapter does not come into the scope of this book : the fox is devoured au naturel.

ALFRED E. T. WATSON.

Preface To 'the Fox'

Much has been written about the fox, but his varied history has never been told. A book on the fox might easily have been expanded into a history of foxhunting. But my plan has been to write the story of the animal from his own point of view. Even where foxhunting is touched upon, the object has been to illustrate the manners and intelligence of the creature rather than to dwell on the skill and courage of his pursuers.

It will be seen that the fox has been of importance to man, not only since the rise of foxhunting, but at all periods of history. The naturalist, the sportsman, the moralist, and the student of animal psychology have each and all found the beast an interesting subject of thought and study. But when we begin to study the viii PREFACE

fox in life and literature we find that he is so surrounded by a cloud of myths and legends, ancient and modern, that, like other heroes, his true nature is obscured. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the real and the legendary fox. The latter is one of the objects of this book. The stories about the animal told here have been sifted and tested. I have tried not to include anything of which the truth was not probable. The anecdotes which have survived the winnowing process are nevertheless still notable enough to give the fox a high place among animals for his adaptability and intelligence. I have found, as all students of natural history must, the natural history columns of the ' Field ' most instructive and suggestive. After searching through a long series of years of that paper, I desire to express once for all my obligations both to the facts recorded and to the editorial remarks on them. In disputed points, as that of the existence of the hybrid between the fox and the dog, I have found that my own observations and enquiries confirm the conclusions arrived at by the natural history editor of the ' Field.' So far as I know this book is the first which has collected together the facts

PREFACE ix

known about the natural history of the fox, his intelligence, and his place as a beast of chase. The standard natural history books always say that the ' habits of the fox are too well known to need description.' ' The Life of a Fox,' though full of interest and keen observation, deals chiefly with the creature from the point of view of the huntsman. Thus I am not without hope that both naturalists and sportsmen may find these pages worth reading.

The latter class cannot but find more interest in their sport when they have some idea of the habits and intelligence of the very remarkable little animal they are hunting. My own experience is that natural history and sport are allies, and that the naturalist and sportsman add to their pleasure by some knowledge of each other's pursuits. Besides the above sources of information I must acknowledge the sympathy and assistance I have received during the progress of this book from Miss Alys Serrell, of Haddon Lodge, Dorset. In her knowledge of hunting and in the keenness and accuracy of her observation she is equalled by few writers on sport.

It is perhaps needless to say that to write x PREFACE

this little book has been to me a labour of love and a constant pleasure from beginning to end. I have undertaken the task with the more confidence because I feel that a book illustrated by Mr. Thorburn and my old friend Mr. G. D. Giles could not in any case lack attractions for the public. I have added a chapter on the jackal because he is to the East both in literature and life what the fox is to the West. I think too that this chapter may increase the usefulness of the book since it contains the practical experiences of one who for some time whippedin to and then hunted foxhounds after jackal in the East. In addition to my own experience this chapter includes the lessons taught me by Major Henry Clerk, late of the Queen's Bays, under whom I learned the work of a whipper-in and huntsman as well as how to manage hounds in kennel in a hot country.

Such as the book is I send it out in hopes that it may interest my fellow sportsmen and field naturalists and be found not unworthy of the admirable series of which it forms a part.

T. F. DALE.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. The Natural History of the Fox . . i

II. The Education of the Fox ... 24

Chapter I

The survival of the fox is the most notable fact in his natural history. This he owes to his adaptability to changes of food, climate, and surroundings. For, of all the carnivora, he has, with the exception of the otter, the widest geographical distribution. The fox is at home in Europe, Asia, including India, a great part of Africa, the whole of North America, and a distinct but allied species, Canis Virginianus — known as the grey fox in the United States — is found in South America.

The fox has few friends and many enemies, and yet is probably as numerous as ever he was. Everything turns to his advantage. The plans of his enemies are often discomfited, and as in fable, so in real life

B the fox not only escapes but benefits by the efforts made for his destruction. Even the fox's worst enemy, man, helps him by killing down the wolf, the strongest, swiftest, most persevering foe he has. The fox-chase, which began as a genuine vermin-hunt, is now the best protection the race has in England. During the last hundred years the number of foxes has increased enormously in this country.

But, indeed, wherever the fox has come in contact with man he has been of importance in the literature and life of his most subtle enemy. The truth about the audacity, cunning, and intelligence of the fox is so marvellous that it is no wonder that he has become a popular hero of fable and folklore.

At one time I thought the fox was fairly well known to me, but the observations and inquiries on which the following chapters are based have shown how much there is still to know. After many years' study of the fox we shall find that he is most difficult to dogmatise about. His intelligence is a most profitable study in animal psychology, of which it has only been possible to skim the surface here. I have tried to verify my facts and anecdotes and to avoid reading into them my own preconceived ideas and theories ; and I hope they may be accepted as a contribution to the history of an animal which is interesting alike to naturalists, historians, and literary folk. The story of the fox touches that of mankind at innumerable points.

The common fox has, we have seen, a wide geographical distribution, and thrives in many countries, under various skies, and among widely different surroundings. But he is very much the same in internal and external conformation, and in the shape of his skull and his teeth, wherever he is found. These last two distinguishing points, indeed, are so much alike that it is difficult to distinguish species among foxes. Seven are acknowledged besides the common fox. The majority of foxes are varieties of our English fox, and will be touched on in these pages very lightly, our main concern being with Cam's Vu/pes, the little red rover of sportsmen, the Reynard of fabulists, poets, and mythologists. Wherever we travel we meet him. He may vary much, but the Himalayan fox, the red and cross foxes of America, the silver fox of the North, the khakicoloured fox of the Nile, the slate-coloured fox of Thibet, are all specifically identical. In the same way there is but one fox in England, the 'greyhound,' { mountain,' and ' cur ' foxes being quite imaginary distinctions.

But having made clear that the fox is the same wherever we find him, we see that he is subject to great variations in colour, size, and weight. This tendency to modification in minor particulars may be perceived by examining carefully any collection of foxes' masks. It will be noted that the size of the heads differs, that some are rounder in the face and shorter in the snout than others. The differences are so great that it would be easy to believe the animals are of distinct species.

Again, a fox varies in colouring according to the country he lives in. Since concealment alike from his prey and his enemies is an immense advantage to him, we are prepared to find that his coat harmonises with his surroundings in such a way as to make him invisible at a short distance. Thus the woodland foxes of England and the foxes of the Himalaya are red in colour; the Scotch fox is of a grey that matches with the heath and rocks of his native haunts ; the Asiatic variety of Cam's Vulpes known as V. flavescens is a sort of yellowish-khaki colour. Nor is this all : foxes vary in colour in the same district, but always, I think, in such a way as to assist their concealment. I have also noted how foxes when hunted, as the fur loses its brightness, become more and more difficult to see, so that in a plough country a fox travelling up a furrow is almost indistinguishable from the surrounding earth. Another variation of colouring is in the white tag to the tail or brush. Some foxes have it, others are without it. It was believed, and perhaps some people still think, that only dog foxes have the white tag. As a matter of fact I do not know that it is more common in one sex than the other. But these old beliefs are not as a rule without foundation, and I should not wonder if there proved to be a majority of dog foxes among the whitetagged ones although we have no figures to go upon. It is not surprising to find many abnormal colours in a race so variable. White foxes are not indeed common but are fairly frequent. In 1898 a white fox was seen in the Roborough Woods, a covert belonging to the Stevenstone (Hon. Mark Rolle's) country. There has been one white fox killed in Essex, and two in Somersetshire, one of the latter being preserved at Cothelestone Hall,1 near Taunton. There was also an instance in Kincardineshire ; but this fox is believed to have come ashore from the wreck of a Norwegian vessel and was probably an Arctic fox (C. lagopus) which is one of a species distinct from our common fox. Black foxes also are reported from

1 Mr. C. J. Esdaile, of Cothelestone Hall, tells me that he knew this fox from the time when it was a cub.

time to time. Those in the Midlands are probably descendants of some Sardinian foxes turned down, it is said, in the Belvoir country, or of the long-legged variety, often imported, known as V. Melanogaster from the dark colour of its under parts. This variety is also found in Italy, the Ardennes, and Scandinavia.

The fox is a member of the family Canidce, a notable and ancient race of which the foxes at all events belong to the old world, no fossil remains having been found in America up to the present time. Although the Canidce are remarkable among the families of the animal kingdom for their similarity in structure and habits, yet the fox diverges from the rest of the dog family to such a degree, that the late Professor St. George Mivart considered it possible that the wolf and the fox may be among the instances of animals much resembling each other in structure and habits which are yet developed from widely differing originals. The dog, the wolf, and the jackal will interbreed, and in some cases the hybrids are fertile. But the fact of a cross between the dog and the fox still remains to be proved.

Although, however, the existence of the cross has not yet been proved, many competent observers believe that it occurs. Mr. T. Smith, the author of ' The Life of a Fox,' certainly thought that such crosses exist. Miss Serrell, the author of 'With Hound and Terrier in the Field,' assures me that she knows of an undoubted instance, and while I was writing this chapter a most interesting article appeared in the Natural History column of 'The Field' (September 30, 1905), entitled 'Wild Dogs in Spain.' Mr. J. G. Haggard, the British Consul at Malaga, communicated to the ' Field ' some notes respecting these animals. He remarks their resemblance to the fox, and we cannot but be struck with the similarity in the measurements he gives to those of our foxes. Mr. Haggard writes : ' In colour, the animal is yellowish-grey with long grey hairs interspersed' (this might stand for a description of many fox-skins I have examined), ' and it is very long in the leg for its size, like all the Spanish foxes. The dimensions roughly taken are as follows : From nose to tail, 30 inches ; ear, 3^ inches ; foreleg, i\ inches 5 hind leg, 9 inches ; tail, 1 1 inches. Of course, I cannot tell the age of the animal, but it seems to me much larger than the English fox.' A comparison of these measurements with those of the typical skin given on p. 203 of this book will show that the animal measured by Mr. Haggard was shorter in the body, but higher on the leg, than the average of English foxes. The above was referred to Mr. Abel

Chapman, and he notes the likeness to a small breed of Spanish sporting dog, which is popularly believed to be a cross between a fox and a dog. Mr. Busk confirms this, and writes that the animal was probably a Podenco or Andalusian rabbit dog of the variety known as the ' Caleva or Paterna breed.' This strain is popularly thought to have originated in a cross between a fox and a dog (bitch). I have often heard of such dogs taking to the hills and living wild, preying on sheep and goats and exhibiting much of the astuteness and cunning of the fox and wolf in keeping out of the way of human beings. The editor of the ' Field ' remarks on the likeness of the animal, of which a careful drawing illustrated the article, to the Spanish fox (Me/anogaster), and, he goes on, its general aspect ' appears to lend some support to the popular belief in Spain, that when domesticated dogs run wild, as they sometimes do, and take to preying for themselves, they occasionally mingle with the fox of the country and produce a litter of hybrids.' These facts could not be passed over, but they hardly amount to a proof; and it is equally possible that the Podenco may be a descendant of a dog-and-wolf cross, degenerate in size through selection for many generations by Spanish sportsmen.

The protective colouring of the fox, and the advantage this must be to an animal which is both hunter and hunted, have already been noticed. If we examine a number of the skins of the fox, we shall find that scarcely two are exactly alike. Protective colouring in animals is a most interesting topic, but it leads to puzzles which we cannot solve. Perhaps the will of the animal has something to do with it, and I seem to trace a faint clue to the connection between the protective colouring and the mind in the intense desire of the fox to remain concealed and unseen. This is one of the dominant motives of the fox's life. That this is a possible theory we infer from the fact that a blind animal does not change colour. Put a dozen minnows into an ordinary white wash-hand basin and they will in a very short time be of a pale colour. If over one no change passes we may be tolerably certain that it is blind. There is probably some connection between the animal's sense of incongruity with the surroundings and this change.

Foxes are the smallest of the dog family. The biggest fox is but a small animal, no larger on the average than a wire-haired fox terrier. I have collected as many instances as I could of the various weights of full-grown foxes, and I can find none so light as io lb., and no authenticated weight over 26 lb. Scotch, Welsh, and Lake-country foxes are rather above the average of English. Joe Bowman, of the Ullswater Hunt, whose hounds, in common with other Fell-country packs, never break up a fox, has weighed many hundreds of foxes, and gives the average weight of a dog fox as 15 lb. and of a vixen as 13 \ lb. He has never, he writes to the 'Field,' killed so small a ox as one of 11 lb., nor one that weighed over 23 lb. His heaviest fox was killed on Cross Fell, where they average rather more than in the rest of the district. Hill foxes are very tough and wiry, and often stand up before hounds for a long time. Strong and active though a fox is, a really good terrier is more than a match for the biggest fox. A little fox terrier named Corby, belonging to Lord Decies, was put to ground to bolt a fox in the Ullswater country. She was underground for twenty- four hours, and killed three large dog foxes which were in the earth, one behind the other. Their total weight was 62 lbs.

Even the characteristic odour of the fox is variable. It is much less in some individuals than others. The pretty little fox of Bengal and the swift, graceful desert fox of Scinde, leave little or no scent, but they will give a capital gallop with a

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOX n couple of not too fast greyhounds. Their turns and twists are very rapid, and the dogs are easily unsighted by them. More often than not, the fox escapes by going to ground, and my recollection of our courses is that the kills were few. I have more than once found them in the Punjab when drawing for jackal with foxhounds, but the pack could seldom run them farther than they could see them. Major Clerk, who was Master of the Queen's Bays' Hounds, told me, however, that he had a few good gallops after foxes in the Punjab.

It occurs to me that individuals may vary in leaving a scent, more or less strong, and that the fact of some members of the fox family being deficient in scenting qualities may be a confirmation of this theory, which is held by many hunting men. If closely allied species differ in this respect, why not individuals, since all general variations probably arise from the inheritance of individual peculiarities? It is easy to see that the Asiatic foxes gain greatly by the absence of scent, for with it their presence would be made more evident to wolves and leopards, both of which animals destroy them. The advantage of scenting powers to the English fox, a widely scattered, solitary species, is obvious. It need not surprise us to find intermediate variations, and it is noteworthy that the foxes which have no scent are more social in their habits than those which leave a trail behind them.

Our English fox lives alone the greater part of its life. For a short time in the breeding season foxes pair, and just before and after the cubs are born the old fox feeds or helps to feed the vixen and her young. In the breeding season the dog foxes fight fiercely, and I have very little doubt that a good many of the weaker ones are killed by the old dog foxes in these contests. How fierce these fights are the following instances will show. On one occasion two foxes were fighting so savagely that a man and a dog were able, unnoticed, to approach quite close to them. The man watched them for some time before they parted and crawled away wounded and blood-stained. On another occasion a man saw two foxes fighting and intervened to save the life of the smaller fox. He had to hit them several times with a stick before they would separate. This throws light on the boldness of the fox at certain seasons, and helps to show that foxes pair after having fought and won the lady of their desire. It is at such times that foxes lose some of their cunning and caution and often fall victims to their enemies. That foxes pair is also shown by the fact that while in the spring hounds sometimes find a dog fox alone, the vixen is seldom or never seen by herself. At such times if there are two foxes in covert the first that goes away is always the dog, and he is possibly endeavouring to lead the pack away from his mate. If left to themselves the fox will feed his vixen, and if the vixen is killed he will bring up the family by himself. The wants of a fox family are large, but they have some ingenious laboursaving devices.

Some years ago my attention was drawn to a story in the ' Field ' of a woodcock left outside an earth in which was a vixen. The earth was stopped, so that it must have been in the hunting season just before or just after the cubs were born. No doubt a dog fox had brought it for the vixen within. The fact excited notice, for woodcocks are not common in the neighbourhood. Under the woodcock's wing were packed neatly two young rabbits. This curious method of packing the food is common, for not very long after this a vixen that laid up near my father's house made a raid on our poultry, and as she selected some rather choice game fowls there was great lamentation. One morning early the vixen was caught in the act of making off with a hen. A stableboy saw the robber and hurled a stick. The old vixen dropped the hen. When we came to examine it there were four chicks neatly packed under the wing.

Pictures and a once familiar nursery song represent the fox as catching birds by the neck and swinging them over his shoulder. I have never seen a fox do this. A fox carries its prey in its mouth exactly as a retriever does, and the habit I am describing accounts for this. Since then I have heard of a grey hen ound in Norway with eleven small capercailzie and a mouse under its wing, and no doubt this is a common habit, for again the advantage of it is so obvious where a vixen has herself and four or five hungry cubs to feed.

Nearly all the Canidce. lay up their young in burrows, and the fox generally, but not invariably, does this. Looking at the animal's limbs, made as they are for activity and speed, we should naturally conclude that it was not an accomplished excavator. The fox either takes advantage of natural caves and crevices, which it enlarges if necessary, or he enters on the labours of the badger or the rabbit. In some cases where the soil is unsuitable — also I think in districts where the earths are much disturbed — the vixen fox makes a nest for her cubs above ground. Stub-bred foxes are not uncommon in the Oakley and Fitzwilliam and in parts of the Craven countries,

There is no suitable place that a fox will not use for the purpose, and I have known cubs to be found in a hayrick, under the floor of a barn, and once actually underneath a house, the master of which was supposed not to be too friendly to foxes. Possibly the vixen selected this as being the place where her enemy was least likely to look for her. When, however, cubs are found in these unusual places, it is probably true that they have been laid up elsewhere and have been removed, as the custom of the fox is, to a new resting-place.

An interesting question meets us here : what are the relations between the fox and the badger? Exactly what these are is by no means clear. At first we should be inclined to think that the badger and fox would never get on together. The badger is the most cleanly of animals : his earth is always kept sweet, and he removes all droppings to little pits at some distance away which he digs for the purpose. The fox is far from fastidious in his habits : he leaves loose feathers and bits of wool about in a way which must be highly disconcerting to the orderly instincts of the badger. Besides this, the fox sometimes buries what he cannot eat, and leaves it until it becomes high. The badger, like other tidy people, is rather short in its temper, especially Mrs. Badger when she

1 6 7 HE FOX

has cubs. The fox and the badger probably lay up their litters about the same time. But two things are clear, and these are that the foxes and badgers do sometimes live in the same earths, and even lay up their cubs in them, though always in different chambers. You may, for example, open an earth and to the left of the entrance find badgers, and to the right foxes. I think, however, that in most of these cases the fox has laid up her cubs elsewhere and has removed them, finding the badger's earth a convenient place, and possibly the badger, which is an excellent fighter under covert, something of a protection against invading terriers. From the Exmoor, West Somerset, Fitzwilliam, Belvoir and Blackmore Vale hunts, I have collected instances of foxes and badgers living in the same burrow ; but that all is not peace is clear from the instances of vixens and cubs killed by badgers given by the late Tom Firr, huntsman of the Quorn, and by Mr. Pease. On the other hand the badgers not seldom desert the earth when occupied by foxes, perhaps disgusted by the dirty habits of the latter. But another point is clear : that the occupation by the fox must be by the permission of the badger, which has might as well as right on his side. It is probable, therefore, that such commensalism must bring some advantage to the badger, though what that is it is difficult to see. One solution suggests itself to me, that the badger, which cannot be much of a hunter, obtains animal food by robbing the fox on its return from hunting. May not the badgers at certain seasons require more nourishment than they are able to catch for themselves ? If it be contended that the badger is not a carnivorous animal, we reply with the question of the old keeper, What are his teeth and jaw for then, and why is he so often caught in traps baited with wild rabbits ? Possibly the rabbit is the key to the mystery, and the alliance between the fox and the badger is strictly on the do ut des principle of the late Prince Bismarck.

Fox cubs are born, as we have seen, towards the end of March, and probably Mr. Tom Smith was right when he wrote that most of them are born within a week or two before or after Lady Day. There are, however, many instances of early and late cubs, for the fox is constant only in one thing — its variability. Foxes are born blind and remain so for eight days. The cubs are pretty little fluffy, snub-nosed things, rather dark in colour like young Irish terriers. They are suckled by the vixen for about a month, and it is at the end of this time that the mother moves them if she means to do so.