THE HILL-FOX.
MAKING his kennel at a high elevation, and having for his habitat the bare, open mountains, the hill- fox differs to some extent from the Midland fox in his feeding habits. The true hill-fox is a mountaineer, and he stands higher on the leg and weighs more than the fox inhabiting an enclosed country. Taking the stock of foxes throughout Great Britain to-day, it is safe to say that the average fox weighs less than 16 lb., whereas in a hill-country, like the Lake District, weights of 18 /b. or more are by no means uncommon. The five packs of Fell hounds which hunt the hills of Cumber- land, Westmorland and parts of Lancashire annually account for some 300 foxes : others come to an untimely end by trap and gun ; yet after each hunting season there is always a good breeding stock left; When we look at the bare, open fells on which the greater number of them live, it is difficult to imagine how even these survivors can find enough food. On the fells, at a height of 1,000 ft. to 3,000 ft., the chief food supply consists of mice, or, to be more correct, field-voles. When walking the hills you can see the work of the voles everywhere in little tunnels through the grass. The number of mice on the mountains is enormous, despite the fact that they are preyed upon by furred and feathered enemies—by fox, stoat, weasel, kestrel and buzzard. The fox with his keen nose hunts out the voles, and though the creatures are very small, no doubt a number of them serve to stave off his hunger. Voles are available all the year round, except when the ground lies deeply buried beneath the snow, and even then a few appear on the surface and leave their tiny tracks on the white carpet.
In summer the food supply on the open hills is increased by the arrival of meadow pipits, whose broods often fall a prey to the fox. At that season of the year, too, the moss holes and stagnant pools swarm with frogs, whose weird croaking is a familiar sound during the breeding season. The fox has a decided appetite for frogs, and he makes many a meal by scooping them out of the pools or catching them in the grass. Frog spawn does not, how- ever, appeal to him, and I have often found a little heap of discarded spawn on or beside a hill-path or " trod " where a fox has eaten a frog. In summer, too, the fells are swarming with a species of blackbeetle, and the fox devours quantities of these. One often finds fox's excrement composed for the main part of the wing cases and other hard portions of these beetles. The food supply of the hill-fox mentioned so far is not very solid, and though a fox can manage to keep life going on such diet, he naturally craves for a really good gorge. Like other predacious animals the fox, having fed well, can go for some time without a meal, and he is not very regular in his feeding hours. Bad weather, especially a steady and prolonged downpour of rain, sometimes drives him to remain underground instead of prowling abroad, but frost, snow or wind have no such effect upon him. When these prevail, he sets out on a foraging expedition ; but heavy rain not only drenches the fox himself, but also restrains the wanderings of the creatures on which he preys and washes out all traces of scent.
Like others of his kind, the hill-fox loves a feast. On the fells he has to depend for such a luxury upon some luckless Herdwick sheep which has died through accident or stress of weather. The keen nose of the fox soon tells him the whereabouts of such a bonne-bouche, and if the carcass is still fresh he gorges to his heart's content. Sometimes such a carcass has been picked almost bare by the carrion crows, ravens and buzzards, and there is Little left for the fox besides the bones. At another time the fox may locate a sheep which the shepherd has buried, and he will dig down to it, scattering stones and earth in all directions. Of the thousands of Herdwick sheep which are pastured on the fells some come to an un- timely end by getting cragfast, falling over the cliffs, or being buried in snowdrifts. Foxes make very short work of a dead sheep. In the space of two nights recently the foxes left little but the skin and bones of a Herdwick ewe. In spring the hill-fox carries off many a lamb to the breeding earth, where a litter of cubs is hungrily awaiting food. I have found scores of lambs and their remains in and about breeding earths on the fells, and have held post-mortems on foxes killed by hounds in spring whose stomachs were crammed with mutton. Some people appear to doubt the evil deeds of the fox in this respect, but though he may not turn his attention to lamb in the Midlands, where other food is plentiful, any shepherd can bear witness that he does so on the Lakeland fells. I believe that a fox likes to kill the lamb himself or at least take one that is still warm, because of all the dead lambs I have seen thrown on to wall tops or into thorn trees by the shepherds not one was carried away by a fox.
To capture hares, rabbits, pheasants, grouse or poultry, the hill-fox has to descend to the lower levels, and this often means a long journey. The individual beat of a hill-fox covers a wider area than that of a Midland fox, because the food supply of the former is more widely scattered than that of the latter. Although the hill-fox is s flesh eater, he by no means confines himself to that diet. A fox eats various berries and fruits such as black- berries and the blaeberries which grow so thickly in certain parts of the fells. He likes trout, too, and I have had young fox cubs which ate them greedily. An adult fox takes a great delight in rolling on a dead cat or other carrion, just as a dog does, and it will also kill a live cat when the opportunity occurs. Yet, although the fox belongs to the canine family, it possesses certain catlike traits, such as waving or whisking its brush instead of wagging it as a dog does.
I believe that a fox usually captures a rabbit or a hare by stealth, although not long since a friend of mine saw a hill-fox running a hare on one of our Lakeland hills ; and also the fox will dig down to and unearth young rabbits in their underground nest or " stop " after the manner of a badger. Rats, too, fall victims to the fox, and he is very fond of prowling round in the vicinity of water where wildfowl are to be found. In deer-forest country the hill-fox will kill young deer calves, and will follow a wounded deer until it succumbs to its injuries. I have found more than one deer carcass on the fells in the neighbourhood of Martindale Forest in Westmorland which had been devoured by foxes and birds of prey. Little in the way of food comes amiss to the hill-fox, but he has to work harder and travel greater distances to obtain it than has his smaller and redder relation of
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