The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-18
THE DEN OF A FOX.

The superintendent of certain game reservation recently gave me the priv ilege of digging out any den of foxes which I might find on his domain, l thanked him for his courtesy, but soon found that my privilege consisted in having the superintendent permission to spend two or three hundred dollars in the interest of the state. The dens are there, plenty of them, but they are not to be disturbed by any ordinary digging. The foxes in their wisdom, have taken advantage of the natural conditions of the country, and have made their homes in certain rocky ra- vines, where, in deep-mouthed Assures, their young are safe from all but the old fox-hunter whose business it is to lie in wait on warm May mornings, and shoot holes in the woody yellow coats of these juvenile poachers, when they come out to romp on the grass before the den. Consequently, I saw no inn mediate prospect of getting any very young foxes to study this spring. until I received a letter from my friend Karl Curtis, of Topsville. telling me
 
 ting me to come and help him to dig it out. In response to his invitation, alighted at the Topsville station at eight on the morning of the 11th of April and two minutes later Karl and were driving away over the country roads in light trap, and with very wise-looking fox-hound, Diana, sitting between our knees. It was a glorious morning, with just touch of frost in the bracing air. The bluebirds were singing in the gray orchards, and the red-wings were calling from the alders beside the swamps. By the sides of the road the naples and elms were bud ding, and the grass was tinged with green. The pussy willows were Tn full bloom, and sent us occasional fragrant Whiffs of spring. After a drive of two miles along the road, we turned into pine wood, and for a short distance skirted quiet lake. Presently we reached a, point where it became im- possible to drive, so we unhitched and blanketed the horse, took from the trap sundry shovels, an axe, pick and crowbar, and forced our way for half mile through thicket of scrub oaks, until we came to a thinly- wood ed bit of level country close to the shore of a lake. Here we came upon the fox-hound, who had preceded up
 buried to the root of her tail in a bur- row, which started near the foot of g. tree, and descended into the ground at gentle slope. This was the dox den we had come to dig out. There was nothing remarkable about the entrance to the burrow; I have seen bigger one at the home of a woodchuck. But large wagon-load of sand piled up be- fore it testified to the fact that it was of considerable length. Over this pile of sand, and down into the burrow, ran several lines of fox tracks, most of the footprints being those of 8 small fox, probably the vixen. There were no bones or feathers about, which was a probable sign that the young were not yet old enough to eat solid food.
 On examining the burrow little closer, we found numerous yellowish hairs, and there were other evidences that the den was occupied. So we cut straight stick about ten feet long, and thrust it into the hole, to get the general direction. It ran about north west, as far as we could reach. From the mouth of the burrow we could see another tunnel, running almost due west, but, as this seemed to lead to den which had probably been in use last year. we decided not to dig it out. So on lint which ran northwest, and about ten feet from the entrance, we started to dig a pit. For a few inches we dug through loam and leaf-mould, and then we struck sand, which of course made the work very easy. At depth of two feet we came to the bur row, which at this point was running toward the surface. Here we found another tunnel running toward the south and 1t was question which of the two we should follow. This point was settled by Diana, who evinced such lively interest in the main bur row, to the neglect of the branch, that we decided to take her advice. So we thrust in our stick again, and were soon digging our second pit. This time we had to go a little deeper before we reached the burrow, and the inclination of the tunnel at this point was decided ly downward. We put in our straight stick again, and found that the burrow turned to the northeast, and we dug our next hit accordingly. We had to go down four feet this time, and in