Fox and Lamb In quite another part of England an
observer noticed that the shepherd had put all the ewes which had borne twins in one enclosure, apart from those that had only one lamb. No particular reason was vouchsafed, but it was remembered that an old shepherd in the same region used to declare that foxes always chose twins for the object of their assault. The frightened ewe was capable of defending one lamb, but might easily be driven out of reach of the other. Whether this compliment to the intelligence of the fox has any sure foundation I do not know ; but more lambs arc killed by foxes than perhaps is generally thought. In parts of Australia the fox (a descendant of those English foxes introduced for garrison hunts) may be a serious trouble to the flocks, but he has not attained to the savagery of his wilder and, I fancy, rather bigger descendants overseas ; and, after all, as in the case of otters and fish, it is generally the sickly lamb that is the victim. The fitter survive. On the subject of foxes and their food a resident just outside Oxford city is much troubled by foxes, which continually dig great holes in the garden in pursuit of buried rubbish. The taste seems the stranger in that the hinterland of the garden swarms with rabbits, which would be, he thought, a much more natural form of food.
Previous page
