f the red fox comes mainly in February and the
beginning of March and the young, from five to eight or nine, are born
in April or early in May. The young of the gray fox are born in May, the
mating season of this species being somewhat later than that of the red
fox. The breeding dens of the fox are usually located on some gravelly
hillside but in places where the country is broken and rocky. They use
natural dens in the rocks. It is only during the breeding season and
while the young foxes are still quite small that these dens are
regularly inhabited. At other times they may spend an occasional day
there or seek safety in the dens when hard pressed by hounds, but for
the most part they prefer to rest out of doors.

Foxes prefer the rough hilly countries and are usually found in good
numbers in the hilly farming sections where there are old pastures and
an occasional patch of woodland. The gray fox is most at home in the
wooded districts but the red species, including the silver, cross and
black prefer the more open stretches of country. In the north they will
be found most plentiful in the barrens and sections where second-growth
timber prevails.

The two species do not appear to be on very friendly terms and not given
to mixing one with the other. In some sections where red foxes were once
numerous and the gray variety were unknown, the grays now predominate,
having driven out the red variety. In other parts the reds have
supplanted the grays. This, however, is only in the central and southern
districts, as the gray fox is never found far north.

FOX FARMING.--Fox farming has been attempted by various parties from
time to time and those who have given the business considerable study
and have persevered have generally been successful. Many of the parties,
however, were men who have had practically no knowledge of nature,
having gone into the business too deeply in the start and being
ignorant of the nature and habits of the animals when found in a wild
state, have as a consequence, failed. Very few of those who have made a
success of breeding the valuable silver foxes have gone into this
business in the start, but have first experimented with the less
valuable red fox, and as the silver and red foxes are of the same
variety their nature and habits are also the same, and the knowledge of
their habits gained by experimenting with one is of equal value as
applied to the other.

The Arctic foxes are being raised succes