The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-09

UuL uG pTeIefS 10 IraV6l 6ablly, anu c
 he takes to open ground. He is font
 of lanes and will always go througl open bars in preference to jumping fence, though there is no greater ar
 tist than the fox when it comes to higl jumping. His sinews are very spring!
 and his big bushy tail is more than (
 mere ornament for hunters to capture if they can. When the fox wants tt 1 turn sharp corner he steers himself around with his brush, that is nearly | as big as all the rest of him. Wher he wants to jump over an obstacle he | uses it as an aeroplane and over he
 goes, even to height of eight or more
 feet. But the fox prefers to saunter along at an easy gait, and so he will
 seek the shelter of the hilltops by the least arduous path, selecting the mead
 ows, the roads and the open valleys up
 the mountain side, the broad and easy
 road that leads to destruction.
 The foxes of New England often
 make their homes along the tops of
 ridges where they can find safe re-
 treat and rear their young unmolested.
 Their homes are generally deep bur-
 rows in some sandy bank from which
 they are sometimes dug out after being
 "holed" by the dogs. Sometimes it is
 the dog that is dug out. In one of the
 hunts at Blandford an enthusiastic fox
 hound followed his little quarry blindly
 into his hole. The dirt flew from his
 paws in shower, and finally the crazy
 dog disappeared in the hillside. Fur
 ther and further he went, paving fran
 tically until even his barking could
 hardly be distinguished. The hunters
 waited a long time, but no dog appear ed, and finally they set to work tos dig
 him out.
 It was a long, hard job of several hours, for the dog had gone in nearly twenty-five feet, and to dig down from the top required a cut of about niEe feet. The fox's hole was so small that the dog could not pass througl it with out enlarging it as he went, and the dirt he displaced in his paving effectu- ally blocked his return. It was very much subdued dog that was finally res- cued.
 But often the foxes hereabout do not always select the hills for their homes. They are also partial to the lowlands and sandy plains in more or less se- cluded spots. The fox is an animal that is not averse to dwelling close to human beings, as the case of Worcester The hunters in that city have hunted foxes for years within few miles of the limits, and at the last hunt of the Worcester Fur company six brushes were take. in the two days. The sly animals are found in generous numbers all through this section, and they have frequently been seen within two miles of the center of Westfield. When night falls the fox comes out of his hole and roams about the fields. where he preys on whatever he can quail, chickens, rats, field mice. and even toads and insects. Fox be pests, for more or less hunting is always going on, but occasionally pet aen will fall victim to a forage and then hunting expedition is organized 'or the knave.
 A pack of hounds loosed at the foot of he mountain early in the morning are lsually not long in striking the trail of , fox. The quarry may be out in the ields or pursuing a leisurely course llong the hillside, but when he hears he music of the hounds on his track he bricks up his ears and lays out a plan If campaign. His first thought Is to ake the dogs away from his hole and 70 perhaps he sets off in the opposite Erection, by no means panic stricken, ut at an easy trot, or, if the dogs are lot very near, at walk. He wanders n and out of the ravines, doubles on is track and from the top of ledge watches the dogs work up the valley. 'hen with flying leap, to break the cent, he goes down the hill and leads he pack a merry dance around the perhaps passing second ime through the same runway. The OK, in fact, really plays the dogs and ome of his tricks in putting them off he scent are very clever and indicate lmost human intelligence Every fox unter of experience can tell you many of Reynards cunning. To- -ard the top of Montgomery mountain
 ledge crops out ten or fifteen feet bove the road leading to the summit hat ledge is pointed out as place here a fox once gave the hounds con- derable trouble simply by Jumping off as far as he could to the ground be- w. A good foxhound will of course, ,on pick up the trail eg fin by travelling bout the spot where the scent wasHost, enlarging the circle, but the K gains some time by his trick, and me means wind in hot chase. But in spite of the perseverance and ! 1ill of the dogs the fox would rarely I SC his brush but for his fatal inclina . on to traverse the runways, where the :, inter is waiting, armed with a double : arreled or repeating shotgun, loaded ith buckshot, for he can outrun any ,g that is used hereabouts, and his aying powers are equal to any de- ~ and likely to be put on them, partic- arly when he Is able by strategy to < t considerable breathing spells now f Id then. And as a last resort he has s hole, for no attempt is made here to ', op up the burrows as there is in Eng !, nd. Once in while, however, 4 ,und jumps a fox so suddenly as to ~ ve him no chance to get away. Down |,
 Little River few days ago one of a e local hunters witnessed a rather re- q arkable sight, that of dog actually ', tching and killing a fox, of which not t1 any Nimrods can boast. This hunter /,
 a man whose veracity cannot be ~