[Illustration: FOXES AT HOME.]
These animals are distinguished from Wolves and Dogs by their longer and
more bushy tail, and by their elongated and more pointed muzzle. They
have a most offensive odor; and dig holes in the ground, wherein they
reside and rear their young. They live upon Birds and other animals, but
never attack any but such as have no power of resistance. The cunning of
the Fox has always furnished a subject fertile in amusing anecdotes.
Their attachment to their young is well illustrated in the following
little narrative extracted from Mr. Lloyd’s “Scandinavian Adventures:”
“A Fox having slaughtered a whole flock of Goslings, M. Drougge, to whom
they belonged, resolved to attack her and her cubs in their ‘earth.’
This, however, was so deep that night set in before any satisfaction
could be obtained. Some days after, on revisiting the kula (or ‘earth’),
it was found deserted, but, after some search, five cubs were found in a
newly-made retreat, and deposited in an old hen-house belonging to the
Lansmann, from whence, however, the mother nearly released them during
the succeeding night; for in the morning the building was found
undermined, and the half-rotten floor nearly bitten through. The cubs
were now removed to an unoccupied room in the dwelling-house itself; and
even here, by burrowing under the foundations of the building, as she
was discovered to be doing during the two following nights, her attempts
to free the prisoners were renewed. But the matter did not rest here;
for one night shortly after, a continuous noise was heard in the attic,
where, in consequence, the Lansmann proceeded to ascertain the cause of
the disturbance. On his way up the stairs he was startled by an animal
apparently resembling a Dog, running hastily past his legs, to which
circumstance he at the time paid little attention; but as, when he
reached the attic, he found everything quiet, he returned to his bed
again. On the following morning, however, it was discovered that the Fox
had been the cause of the uproar; for, with the intention of getting
access to her cubs, she had been endeavoring to make an aperture in the
chimney, and it then became perfectly clear that it was the Fox herself
which, in her hurry to escape, had nearly upset the Lansmann, while
mounting the steps the night before. The room below, in which the cubs
were confined, was now examined, but they were nowhere to be seen. At
length, however, their cries were heard in the flue of the stove, the
whole of which structure it was necessary to take down before they could
be extricated.”