Note iii — BOOK IV.

There are many Stories told of the Craft of the Fox, to compass his Prey; of which Ol. Magnus hath many such, as, feigning the barking of a Dog, to catch Prey near Houses; feigning himself dead, to catch such Animals as come to feed upon him; laying his Tail on a Wasp-Nest, and then rubbing it hard against a Tree, and then eating the Wasps so killed: Ridding himself of Fleas, by gradually going into Water, with a Lock of Wool in his Mouth, and so driving the Fleas up into it, and then leaving it in the Water; By catching Crab-Fish with his Tail, which he saith he himself was an Eye-Witness of; Vidi & ego in Scopulis Norvegia Vulpem, inter rupes immissâ caudâ in aquas, plures educere Cancros, ac demum devorare. Ol. Mag. Hist. l. 18. c. 39, 40. But Pliny’s fabulous Story of the Hyæna out-does these Relations of the Fox, Sermonem humanum inter pastorum stabula assimulare, nomenque alicujus addiscere, quem evocatum foràs laceret. Item Vomitionem hominis imitari ad sollicitandos Canes quos invadat. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 30.