[18] We are again indebted to Professor Bonney's "Alpine Regions of Switzerland" for the information here given. The wolf, though still lingering in several lonely parts of the Alps, is rapidly becoming rare. It is most frequent in the districts about the Engadine and in the Jura Mountains. Only in winter-time, when hard pressed by hunger, does it approach the haunts of man. It takes almost any kind of prey it can get,--foxes, hares, rats, mice, birds, lizards, frogs, and toads. Sheep and goats are its favourite prey. The wolf is an affectionate parent, and takes his turn in looking after the nurslings, which is a necessary precaution, as his friends and relations have a way of eating up the babies. The fox is common in many parts of the Alps, but not often seen by travellers. Instead of taking the trouble to burrow, he frequently manages by various cunning devices to take possession of a badger's hole. As Tschudi quaintly observes, "He has far too much imagination and poetic sentiment to like so monotonous and laborious an occupation as burrowing." Like the wolf, the mountain fox eats whatever he can catch, even beetles, flies, and bees. Those in the valleys live more luxuriously than their relations on the mountains,--plundering bee-hives and robbing orchards. As it was in Judæa in the days of Solomon, so it is now in Switzerland among the vineyards; and a peasant might well say, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards." The lynx is only occasionally found in the Alps, which is fortunate for the shepherds, for they can play terrible havoc with the sheep. Wild-cats still linger in the most unfrequented parts. Their fur is valuable, and the flesh is sometimes eaten. The badger is far from common, though rarely seen by day. It is very cunning in avoiding traps, and so is generally either dug out of its hole drawn by dogs, or pulled out by a pole with nippers or a hook at the end. Passing on to less ferocious beasts, we find the otter common along the borders of rivers and lakes. The polecat, weasel, and stoat are often too abundant for keepers of poultry. The squirrel is common enough in the forests, but varies greatly in colour. It is doubtful whether the beaver still lingers by some lonely Alpine stream. It is last mentioned in a list of Swiss mammals, published in 1817, as found, though rarely, in some lonely spots. Rabbits are common, but hares rather scarce; of these there are, as in Scotland, two varieties,--the brown hare, which is seldom found at heights greater than four thousand to five thousand feet, and the blue hare, which ranges up to nine thousand feet. The latter changes colour: its fur in summer is of a dull bluish-grey, and in winter it becomes perfectly white, and so affords a striking illustration of "protective mimicry," for with snow lying on the ground it would be very hard to see the creature.