Prairie Red-fox 731 



have been inspired by such a thought; in one case, Indeed, it 

 was mid-July, but the Fox had already secured a fowl, and the 

 crows were mobbing him because, knowing his dislike of 

 'a scene,' they hoped he might abandon his plunder to get rid 

 of them, and so they would profit by his success. 



This animal is popularly supposed to subsist chiefly on food 

 poultry. Rabbits, and game birds. I have known it to kill each 

 of these, but I suspect that Mice form the largest part of its 

 diet. 



The Fox spends so much time catching Mice that he is mouse 

 often seen in the act. Many times, by means of a telescope, I ing 

 have observed one in broad daylight, while he secured his easy 

 prey. Selecting some well-known mouse-haunt, usually a 

 grassy hollow, he advances quietly, looking this way and that 

 for the slightest rustle, alert to the finest sound, tiptoeing, even 

 standing on his hind-legs to see more clearly over the grass. A 

 squeak, or perhaps the movement of the grass-tops, catches his 

 eye, and he springs for the root of the long vibrating spear, 

 slaying with a nip the Mouse that he probably does not see, 

 then separates it later from the grass, to chew and swallow the 

 morsel in a few seconds. His movements are full of elegance 

 and his habits of graceful poses. I know of no prettier sight 

 than a Royal Fox, red and rich in his sleek new coat with its 

 black velvet facings and its trimmings of silver and gold, as he 

 hunts for Mice among the rank foliage and flowers of a prairie- 

 hollow in Manitoba. 



A similar scene has been described to me by W. R. Hine. 

 In this case, however, the Fox was not a common yellow one, 

 but a superb Silver-black. 



In the October of 1887, while out shooting grouse on the 

 Emerson Trail, two miles south of Winnipeg, he saw a large 

 Black-fox on the open prairie, some five hundred yards away. 

 It was catching Mice, and paid little heed to him as he drove 

 by in a rig with his father and brother. Hine whistled heed- 

 lessly and passed the mouser at one hundred yard distance. 



