Lrg Photographing a Wild Fox 
The whole section, therefore, offers ideal homes for 
the foxes. 
The same conditions, too, which have naturally 
protected the foxes have had a like influence on the 
ruffed grouse and other small game which largely 
furnish the food supply of Reynard; but they, like 
himself, have learned cunning from long experience, 
and he often finds the domestic fowl which has ven- 
tured too far from the protection of the farm-boy 
and his dog a more easy victim. This fact makes 
the fox especially obnoxious to the farmer in the 
thinly populated districts of this region. During the 
hunting season many are shot, but their numbers are 
nevertheless gradually increasing. 
It was during the tapping of the sugar bush that 
some boys noticed numerous fox tracks in the snow. 
They also caught an occasional glimpse of a long, slim 
body gliding as silently as a shadow into the dwarf 
hemlocks by the swamp, and the watchers of the 
sugar camp at night were often startled by shrill 
barking just outside of the circle of light. This re- 
minded the boys of the gradual disappearance of 
their father’s fowls, and the oft repeated threats 
against Reynard; and they determined, when the 
hurry of sugar making was over, to turn their atten- 
tion to the destruction of their troublesome neighbors. 
