The Arizona sentinel., 1886-10-16
WILD ANIMALS,
Their Gradual Recession Before the Ad
 vance of Modern Civilization.

I
 The wild animals of England are now
 few in number. At Chillingworth
 Park, in Northumberland, there are
 some wild oxen. Had the fox not been
 preserved for the chase it would long
 ago have been extinct. Dogs have a
 strong repugnance to the wolf, but de-
 light in the chase of the fox. In cold
 countries foxes are of various colors.
 Red foxes are so abundant in the wood-
 ed districts of the fur countries that
 many thousand skins are annually eX-
 ported from America to Britain. The
 fur of the black fox is highly valued.
 While the writer was engaged upon this
 article the following circumstance came
 under his notice. On the Alveston Hill
 estate, near Stafford-on-Avon, a litter
 of eleven foxes, apparently about six
 weeks old, all tame and docile, have
 taken possession of rabbit hole in a
 bank at the foot of clump of trees.
 The young cubs, notwithstanding the
 presence of numerous people attracted
 to the spot by the novel sight, leave
 their hole and drink occasionally out of
 trough containing milk which has
 been placed there for their
 use. The animals are as tame as puppies, and the visitor
 easily induces them to come forth by whstling softly and calling them. They are content to be picked up and caress- ed, and they play about in the most amusing manner. An artist has been to the spot and photographed the whole group. It is thought that the dog fox has been killed, and that the vixen has carried her cubs to the place mentioned. In corroboration of this it may be stated that when first discovered only four or five cubs were to. be seen, and they have gradually increased until the present number has been reached
 The wild cat finds its retreat among the mountains of Scotland and the northern counties of England and of Wales and Ireland, the larger woods being its place of concealment. It has been called the British Tiger" One was killed in Cumberland wh oh meas ured five feet from the nose to the end of the tail. When Christopher Colum- bus discovered America hunter brought him one which he found in the woods. The hedgehog has been said to be proof against poison. A German physician who wished to dissect one gave it prussic acid, but it took no ef- feet; neither did arsenic, opium nor corrosive sublimate. It has been found to eat hundred cantharides without injury. Plutarch mentions the case of of man who discovered that hedge hog generally has its burrow open at various points and warned by the instinct of atmospheric change, stopped up the opening next the quarter whence the wind would blow, and thus predicted to certainty to which quarter the wind would shift Moles show changes of weather. The temperature or dryness of the air governs that underground worker in his motions as to the depth at which it lives or works; though this unquestionably is partly due, no doubt, to its want of food or inability to bear known to become domesticated. The method adopted to obtain this end is to stroke them gently over the back, and to threaten or beat them when they at tempt to bite, It has been found that when their teeth have been rubbed with garlic all inclination to bite has been Their bite is generally fatal; a hare or rabbit once severely bitten never recovers. Buffon gives the case of weasel being found with three young ones in the carcass of wolf that was grown putrid, and that had been hung up by the hind legs as a ter TOT to others In this strange and hor- rid retreat the weasel had retired to bring forth her young; she had fur nished the cavity with hay, grass and leaves; and the young ones were just brought forth when they were discov- cred by a peasant passing that way. Chambers Journal.