The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-30
Conservation
CLEAN BILL OF
HEALTH is GIVEN
TO FOX FAMILY
Brown County Natives Back
Animals Against Those
Seeking to Kill.
BY WILLIAM r. COLLINS
Times Special Writer

AAHes Special writer
The big, red fox of Kelley's hill
was master Of the hounds when I
saw him first near the stone sign.
henry Sipe and his son had known
MIN for five years. The wisdom of
OLD Three Legs, and Of Whitley and
Big Blackie had not yet been equal
20 the task Of bringing him home.
Time after time they had freed
MIN, time after time he had crossed
IN front of Henry to the undisglised
delight Of that old, veteran fox
hunter. But Henry carried neither
gun, club nor the wish to kill. His
philosophy of the hunt contained
thoughts that will not become pre-
valent in this country for genera
lions to come.
If shoot this fox, that ends the
hunt. will have to go home or find
another fox. If every man kills
every fox he sees, then there won't
be enough foxes left to go around.
don't want to go hundred miles
TO fox hunt, want to fox hunt
here. When it gets too cold to
stand out on the ridges waiting for
the dogs, get up in the lumber
room down home, throw open the
window and take my fox hunt sit
ting in the chair. The dogs know
what want and they herd the old
fox around the clearing where I
can hear what they are doing" Mr..
Sipe says.
A Tough Job
Sure, they will catch that big fox
some day and they will kill him, too,
but it will take two of the best of
them to do it. He's stout. Before
they take him, they will have to
think up some new tricks You
saw Whitley try to get ahead of him
the last time you were down here.
Well, that's an old trick Of hers
and he learned it better than she
did. Red fox knows better where
each dog is than the dogs know
where he is because he's not blab-
bling about where he is going all the
time like they are.
Last spring at mating time, red
fox took two wives and you should
see him worry those hounds when
they jumped on one of his women.
He'd cut in ahead of the dogs and
get them so fuddled they didn't
know just what had happened, all
but Three Legs, he knew all the
time what was up, but he never
could resist it when red fox showed
himself couple of times and then
old cripple would go bellering after
the rest of the dogs and leave the
women folks alone with their pups
Complaints Are Made
THAT old fox knows we men aren't
out to kill him with a gun We don't
shoot foxes in this country. Some
of these northern sports that come
down here once in a while will
shoot fox ahead Of the dogs when
they are out bird hunting, but that
just about shuts the country up for
them if we know who they are.
THE thing I'm interested in,
Henry, is the question of having
game birds in the same neighbor-
hood with a bunch of these foxes"
I told him. I've been told that the
two don't go together. Up north, the
! farmers complain about the foxes
getting into their chickens and that
lis why they go out in mobs and
club every fox they find in the
drive"
We'll, as to that, Bill, I've got
chickens and they're not penned up
and may lose one now and then
but most of the stories I've heard
about foxes eaGng chickens came
out of Grimes Fairy Tales. You go
up and ask Lon Weddle at the game
farm about what foxes do to his
pheasants," Sipe answered.
Not Pheasant Eaters
I did ask Lon. Lon told me they
had crippled pheasant that stayed
close around the field near the house
and came up to the yard nearly
every day to feed. Across the road
from the house is a pen of wild
foxes Lon keeps to show visitors to
the game farm. These attract the
foxes that run wild and every night
they can be seen around the place.
If foxes were pheasant eaters,
long ago. Mrs. Weddle has a pet
fox among her list of tanned wild
things. She states that she came
from foX-hunting family and knew
more about foxes than she did about
the alphabet before she started TO
school, and knows that their chief
food consists of field mice. She
told me that a fox only will tackle
bigger game when starved to it.
had one more shot in my locker.
1--WE understood that wherever you
have a lot of foxes, you will find a
shortage of quail and other smaller
ground birds" I said AT this, Lon
gave me a long. hard look and
said:
IF that's the case, what do you
fellows come down to Brown county
for If it's not to shoot quail? We
have plenty Of foxes and we also
have plenty of quail"