Vulpine Economy Since that savage but interesting animal the fox
is presently to be the cause of much barking in the House of Commons, it is not out of place to consider the economy, not to say the ecology, of such ferae natural. I have been hearing a good deal lately about the sins or crimes of the fox and its punishments. It is a curse in the hilly districts of the West. A good many thousand have been shot in the Welsh hills and not a few poisoned in the Fells of Cumberland and Westmorland. The reason of such slaughter is, of course, that foxes kill large numbers of lambs, and realising, with their habitual cunning, that a ewe finds it more difficult to protect two babes than one, they usually attack a twin. Triste lupus stabulis. Now, with regard to shooting, a good many escape wounded ; and it is a known fact that the maimed animals, which cannot catch rats or rabbits, are the worst enemies to poultry. As to poison, " they love not poison who do poison need " ; and dogs, as well as foxes, suffer. The last animal that I found myself in that abominable instrument the steel-toothed trap was a fox, and the trap was set at the mouth of the earth. The ideal is a small company of foxes. Rats are their favourite food, and no naturalist would like to see them exterminated. How that ideal is to be maintained, who shall say ? In the plains, including " the Shires " proudly so-called, the balance is pretty well kept. In the hills and fells it is probably necessary to use various means of destruction, and we must face the fact that destruction is impossible without some cruelty.
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