Year: 1872

roosts occasionally suffer from his depre-
dations, wink at his evil doings, which
they think are more than compensated by
the hunts in which they are always well
come to join.


Here, it is very different with regard to
the fox, who is shot at and trapped, with
out reserve, by all rangers of the woods.
From his cunning and swiftness of foot,
the fox is as difficult to shoot as he is to
trap; but woodsmen have their wiies, too,
and he often gets bullet through him.
Once, when l was in the depth of the for
est, after deer, and standing very motion
less, l saw fox running along upon the
trunk of huge fallen tree, about forty
yards ahead of me. Without moving, l
made chirping noise with my mouth, as
one does when coaXing a dog. All at once
the fox stopped, turned his face squarely
toward me, and in moment the bullet
from my rifle had gone through his head,
killing him instantly. Vast numbers of
foxes are killed all over the northern re-
gions of the United States and Canada
for their skins, which form large item in
the fur trade. The skin Of the common
red fox brings but small price. The
silver fox is more valuable, but the high
est price is paid for good black-fox skin,
which is sometimes valued at fifty dollars.
So far as my observation goes, the black
fox is not distinct species, but only an
accidental variety of the red one. At
least, l know, myself, of an instance in
which Canadian hunter dug five cubs
out from a den where a couple of red
foxes had their home, three of these cubs
being red and the other two black. The
common hare of the cedar swamps affords
both sport and food to the fox, who, in
this kind of chase, however, has rival
in the lynx, or l0up cerUaer, a creature far
too fierce and powerful for him to con-
tend with Once saw fox crossing a
stream on fallen tree, by which it was
spanned, with young hare in his mouth,
which he was doubtless taking home to
his family.


Another time, on the same river already
referred to, watched, with much inter-
est, an incident which reminded me of
the old fable of the "Fox and the Grapes. ;"
1t was in winter time, and was moving
quietly along through the noiseless wood,
looking out for otters, tracks of which
had seen in the snow on the banks of the
stream, the day before. The river was
frozen across, and there was about a foot
of snow upon the ice. Immediately in
front of the tree behind which l stood,
and at distance of about sixty yards,
there was an ''air-hole," or opening N
the ice-a pool about twelve feet long, by
eight wide, perhaps-and In this some
wild ducks were swimming, keeping
themselves well against the stream, which
here ran pretty fast. l Watched, for some
time, the skill with which they stemmed
the current. Then, attracted by some
sound at distance, l turned away for a
minute or so, and, when | looked round
again l saw, to my great surprise, large
| rcd fOy around tho mol n
which the ducks were swimming. Such
an expression of chagrin as sat upon that
red rascal's face, l do not remember ever
to have observed, before or since, on the
countenance of any beast. AS he kept
running round the pool, the ducks
eyed him attentively, sheering
away quietly to the side far
thest from him, and so always keeping
well out of his reach. The fox knew far
too much to plunge into the water, for
the current, as | have said, was strong,
and he would have been carried under
the ice. His game seemed to be to furry
the ducks, and make them rise, when he
would doubtless have snapped up one of
them before they got well under way.
But the sagacious waterfowl forbore to
give him this advantage, perfectly conf
dent that they were masters of the situa
ton, and out of reach of their natural
enemy. Sometimes the fox would sit
down upon the edge of the pool, gnashing
his teeth, and giving vent to little peev-
ish whimper, at the idea of being thus
outwitted by lot of simple fowls. Al
last grew weary of watching the antics
of the fellow, and so let drive bullet al
him from my rifle, but made a bad shot OF
it, only breaking one of his fore-legs, and
away he went upon three. Then, the
danger being removed, the ducks rose
and flew away up the river. 1 followed
the fox long way into the woods by his
tracks, but had to give up the chase al
last, as evening was coming on.-Charle'
D0aoson Sh0nly, IN Appleton's Journal