The herald., 1893-12-18
HE is MERRY AND SLY
REYNARD, THOUGH A JOLLY BEAST,
Is CONSIDERABLE OF A NUISANCE.

Animal Whose Career Is Often Short
Lived, but Whose Existence Is Nevcrthe-
less Happy One.
How few people know what an inter-
esting chap the fox isl" said the natural
list. They know him only by reputation
and that as chicken thief, which he is.
But he has lots of points, l tell you. A
merry, sly dog is reynard. All sum-
mer he lives IN luxurious ease, roam
ing the woods and sauntering by the
pearly brooks, or basking in the noon
day sun.
He loves fish and going down to the
stream he waits till he spies plump
trout It's all over in a twinkle. A
leap, snap, and off he trots with his
juicy morsel. A stupid crawfish snoozes
by his hole near the waters edge.
Reynard drops his tail IN the water and
tickles him with it. The angered crus
taoean comes out of his hiding place
and is seized and crushed, armor and
all. When the ripening corn is ready
to drop, and the luscious fruits have
reached their maturity, and all nature
is plethoric with ripening fullness,
then Master Fox is in clover. Timid
rabbits prick up their ears and run, un-
conscious of danger, along the hillside;
the quails skulk noiselessly in the
wheat stubble birds pour forth their
notes of praise-and he catches them
all. He loves fruits, stealthily stealing
into orchards, where apples and plump
pears tempt, and in the vineyard he
fairly revels in grapes. His cubs grow
fat and saucy. He shows them how to
pilfer honey and when the busy bees
have laid up a winter store he crawls to
the hives near the garden fence, and
jumping up to the small opening icks
the sweet drops with pure delight. Out
come the stinging, humming honey max
ers and settle like pail on his thick
pelt, but he doubles up in twinkling,
and rolling over and over crushes them
by the score and eats them as a relish.
Cunning? No animal beats him. Look
at his brainy head. His delicate ears
broad below to catch every sound from
the highest nete of the shral warbler to
the low grooming of the cricket, or the
distant murmur of storm, or the fevered
pants of the prancing hounds, and taper
ing so sharply to point that they can
shape themselves to every wave of air
that makes the tiniest rustic of noise.
Note the crafty calculation and fore
sight of the low, fiat brow. What nose!
Now full of resolute purpose pointing
straight forward, and anon turning up
with concentrated malice and scorn.
The eye, deep set, regular robbers
eye, lacking the soft beauty Of the tim
cats, yet it trembles with modest hui
mility or glares with murderous rage,
flashing fire and vengeance. Energy
and self control speak in the thin. Gym
ical lips, and the mouth opens from ear
to ear. He can hap, crawl, run and
swim with the velocity Of lightning, and
his wiry body is carried so noiselessly
along that scarce trace ts left. His
delicate footballs echo no response even
among the dead leaves of the forest.
His walk is treacherous, his glance
sinister. Seizing bunch of grain in his
mouth, he will swim into the midst of
a flock of ducks and seize the plumpest
for dinner.
"He will feign death like possum,
and even the hound teeth and the flash
of gunpowder havefailed to arouse him.
A farmer surprised one in hen roost.
Believing that the fox was dead from
overeating the farmer kicked the stiff
ened body ON tho floor, picked it up by
the tail and flung ii out in the barn
yard. In a jffy the fox gathered up
his legs and escaped.
He is voracious, Is reynard. When
hunger pressed and gaunt and lean from
starvation, he'll not refuse serpents and
toads and moles and. rats. He has been
known to attack and kill young calves
and lambs, and if the seashore is near
will revel in oysters and shellfish. A
group of rabbits are feeding in clover
patch. He'll crawl along, nibbling
the juicy flowers, until near enough to
make grab. He'll stalk a bird with
his hind legs dragging behind him un-
til near enough to spring. How farmers
Uicdu HIS iIioduo AZ thc pouiOiy ydfu1
Fasten the yard up tight, and he will
burrow a winding passage into the
ground beneath and suddenly appear
among the drowsy chickens and stupid
geese, whose shrill and alarmed cries
arouse the farmer from his bed to sally
forth, finding all safe. Then the fox
will sneak back and pack away with
the plumpest pullet or the fattest goose.
February is the month when reynard
goes a-wooing, and wide range he
takes, flirting and toying with every
vixen that chances in his way. 1t is full
ly 60 days before madam clears the rub
bish all out of her burrow and brings
forth her young, from three to six at a
litter, 1t will be fully month before
the sharp nosed cubs begin to play and
gambol about the doorway of their
home. Perhaps it will be at the root
of an old tree. beneath a ledge of rocks,
or in the hollow Of dead tree trunk, or
a burrow with several entrances in the
sand or loan. Telltale chicken bones and
feathers and fur strewn about the en-
trance speak of many hen roost robbed
or Of foolish rabbits and overconfident
grouse that have furnished food for the
ever hungry cubs. The mother fox
faithfully feeds her young and boldly