106 The Fox 
was to be seen of the dog. Toward evening he 
returned home. Knowing the cunning of foxes, and 
believing that they can reason in a general way, I was 
curious to learn more about them. Accordingly on 
the third day succeeding the incident of the saga- 
cious female fox, I led the hound near the den and 
put him upon her trail. As far as I could judge, 
they passed over the same course as before; the fox 
appearing after about the same lapse of time, taking 
up her station near the den, where she remained for 
a short time and then disappeared. I went home in 
about an hour, and the hound was not heard again that 
day; but in the morning he was resting on the door- 
mat, apparently as happy as though an old fox had 
not fooled him. 
This, with other data, furnished me material for 
serious thought in regard to this foxy family. Having 
satisfied myself sufficiently, as I believed, to warrant 
conclusions, I once more repeated the experiment with 
the hound and the female fox, with practically identi- 
cal results. 
From these experiments it seems reasonable to 
believe that, while the young are in the burrow and 
unable to care for themselves, it is the business of 
the male fox to keep dogs away from the den by 
leading them on “straightaways.” I am led firmly 
