The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-27
A MERRY BEAST is REYNARD.
Restless, Alert, Full of Resources, a
Devilmay-Care Life is the Fox's.


Restless, Alert, Full of Resources, a
Devilmay-CareL Life is the Fox's.
From the New York sun
Chow few people know what an inter
esting chap the fox is, - said the natural
list ''They know him only byreputation,
and that as a chicken thief, which he is.
But he has lots of points, tell you, A
merry, sly dog is Reynard. All summer
| he lives in luxurious ease, roaming the
woods and sauntering by the pearly
/ brooks, or basking in the MONDAY sun.
He loves fish and going down to the
stream he waits till he spies a plump
| trout. It's over in a twinkIing A leap,
/ a snap, and off he trots with his juicy
/ morsel A stupid erawtSh snoozes by his
! hole near the waters edge. Reynard
| drops his tail in the water and tiekleS
! him with it. The angered crustacean
! 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 fulness, then Master Fox
| is in clover Timid rabbits prick up their
ears and run, unconscious of danger,
| along the hillside; the quails skull1 noise
| lessly in the wheat stubble; birds pour
| forth their notes of praise-and he
| catches them all. He loves fruits.
| Stealthily stealing into orchards where
1 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 open
ing, ticks the sweet drops with pure de
| light. Out come the singing, humming
honey-malSers aud settle like pail on his
thick pelt; but he doubles up in a twink
ling and, rolling over and over, crushes
them by the score and eats them as rel
ish.
Cunning? No animal beats him. Look
at his brainy head. His delicate ears
broad below to catch every sound from
the highest note of the shrill 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 foresight
of the low, fiat brow. What a nose
Now full of resolute purpose, pointing
straight forward and anon turning up
with concentrated malice and scorn.
The eye, deep set, a regular robbers eye,
lacking the soft beauty of the timid deer,
or the fascinating glare of the cats, yet
it trembles with modest humility,
or glares with murderous rage fash
ing fire and vengeance. Energy and
self control speak in the thin Gym
ical lips, and the mouth opens from ear to
ear He can leap, crawl, run and swim
with the velocity of lightning, and his
wiry body is carried so noiselessly along
that scarce trace is left. His delicate
footballs echo no response even among the
dead leaves of the forest. His walk is
| his ulanpp sinister GpiyiO O
bunch of grain in his mouth he will
swim into the midst of flock of ducks
and seize the plumpest for a dinner.
''He will feign death like 'possum,
and even the hounds teeth and the fash
of gunpowder have failed to arouse him.
A farmer surprised one in hen roost.
Believing that the fox was dead from
overheating the farmer kicked the stiff
ened body on the floor, picked it up by the
tail, and flung it out in the barnyard. In
jiffy 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 lamb, and if the seashore is near will
revel in oysters and shell-fish. A group of
rabbits Are feeding IN d GLOVER patch.
He'll crawl along, nibbling the juicy
towers, until near enough TO make grab.
II He'll stalk bird with his hind legs
dragging behind him, until near enough TO
| spring. How farmers dread his inroads
in the poultry yard. Fasten the yard up
, tight and he will burrow a winding pas
sage into the ground beneath and sud
denly 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
| tho fOy will sneak hack and paplF ava u
with the plumpest pullet or the latest
goose.
February is the month when reynard
goes awooing, and wide range he takes,
flirting and toying with every vixen that
chances in his way. 1t is fully sixty days
before madame clears the rubbish 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 door
way of their home. Perhaps it will be a t
the root of an old tree, beneath ledge OF
rocks, or in the hollow of dead tree
trunk, or a burrow with several en-
frances in the sand or loan. Tell-tale
chicken bones, and feathers and fur
strewn about the entrance speak of many
a hen rOost robbed or of foolish rabbits
and oVer-confident grouse that have fur
nished food for the ever-hungfy cubs.
The mother fox faithfully feeds her
young and boldly steals TO support them.
She knows as all the sportsmen know,
that the hounds will not follow her while
she has a family depending upon her.
"A merry, devil-maycare life does the
fox lead, indeed 1t may be short one,
for traps and snares are many hunters
are alert, and the scent of hound is keen.
But reynard rollicks and ROSTERS, and
plays the bold freebooter amid it ALL"
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