. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. he will breed in such another; and reared on mountainfare, he will feed on the same. Along the lower margin of his domain he may crosswith the lowland fox, but only as the mountain hare may—on rare occasions, it issaid not at all—cross with his relative of the plain. Be that as it may, he is thenobler animal. He stands higher on his legs, is bigger, broader in the head, bushier in the tail. One describes the foxes ofthe broken Sutherlandshire country asalmost as tall and powerful as is not a sneak. There are no
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. he will breed in such another; and reared on mountainfare, he will feed on the same. Along the lower margin of his domain he may crosswith the lowland fox, but only as the mountain hare may—on rare occasions, it issaid not at all—cross with his relative of the plain. Be that as it may, he is thenobler animal. He stands higher on his legs, is bigger, broader in the head, bushier in the tail. One describes the foxes ofthe broken Sutherlandshire country asalmost as tall and powerful as is not a sneak. There are no hen-houses about where an easy meal may behad, so be he can hoodwink the goodwife of the cottage, nor pheasantries, norother incentives to low cunning. He feedson the open, where his quarry have learned,in the same hard school, how to look afterthemselves, and have, at least, an equalchance with him in the game. He differs^ almost as widely as the wild cat from the tame Cat, and, curiously enough, in some COMMON FOX. of the same Badgers and Foxes in Scotland 261 There is no wild animal better able to look after itself. He is a rascal. Hetakes lambs in the spring, and game in the summer. He kills more than he caneat, hiding what is over against another time, nor troubles to return so long as hecan get anything fresh to kill and hide again. Every mans hand is against shepherd and keeper alike are at their wits end; he is a match for both ofthem. He is hard to outwit with a bait, and when caught he chooses the heroicremedy of biting the leg through, leaving the foot, and as much more as need be, inthe trap. Nothing is left but a chance shot, and that is just what he will not give,or not very often. He usually sees before he is seen, and the only view of him isas he goes out of reach at his easy gallop. Were any other native wild animal togive an equally good reason in its bad conduct, it is not too much to say that itmust soon cease to
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