A majority of fox cubs are born about March 25, five or six to a
litter. With such crafty parents there is small chance that they will
go short of food, and fortunately they come into the world just when
baby rabbits are most plentiful. Much else than rabbit goes down their
throats, as the entrance to any fox's earth makes evident--there you
see remains of quantities of frogs, mice, rats, hares, and, of course,
of countless pheasants and partridges, and of many a fowl. The dog
fox is not one to show any great attention to his mate: he pays her
many visits, but he enjoys himself in his own way. Nor could he be
expected to take a deep interest in the welfare of his half-dozen
families, several miles apart. But some foxes make better fathers than
others; one we have known to rear a litter of cubs on the death of the
vixen. Of course a dog fox could do little if the cubs were dependent
on a milk diet. A curious case of an exemplary fox was that of the
unfortunate one which met his end while carrying a shoulder of carrion
mutton to two vixens and two litters inhabiting the same earth.
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