3IO Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. XL 



orchard close to a farm house where the family were at breakfast, and 

 yet get away without being seen, carrying one of his victims with him. 

 On another occasion, quite recently, one of my neighbors had thirty 

 pullets taken in a single night. Eighteen of ^ them were found next 

 morning in a heap at the foot of an oak tree. Another farmer tells me 

 that he has lost one hundred and fifty in one season, all presumably 

 going to the foxes. 



''Yet although the farmer and the fox are such inveterate enemies, 

 they manage to benefit each other in a great many ways quite uninten- 

 tionally. 



"The fox destroys numberless field mice and woodchucks for the 

 farmer, and in return the farmer supplies him with poultry, and builds 

 convenient bridges over streams and wet places, which the fox crosses 

 oftener than the farmer, for he is as sensitive as a cat about getting his 

 feet wet. 



"On the whole I am inclined to believe that the fox gets the best 

 part of the exchange, for, while the farmer shoots at him on every occa- 

 sion, and hunts him with dogs in the winter, he has cleared the land of 

 wolves and panthers, so that foxes are probably safer than before any 

 land was ploughed. 



"When the snow is deep the farmer's sled makes the best of paths 

 for the fox, who appropriates them for his own use just as unconcernedly 

 as he does the regular highway. But to see a fox get round the farmer's 

 dogs, in order to make friends with them, is one of the most astonishing 

 revelations of character. Usually the dogs seem hardly to know at 

 first what to make of his advances, but the fox is pretty certain to 

 succeed in bringing them to his side in the end, and after that they may 

 be seen playing together day after day. 



"If, as I am tempted to believe, the fox really works this scheme 

 with the deliberate purpose of making it safer for him to get at the 

 fanner's chickens, he is gifted with a degree of shrewdness beyond 

 anything he has been credited with." 



Some persons are able to imitate the squeak of a Meadow Mouse and 

 in this way can call a passing Fox to within a short distance of their place 

 of concealment. My esteemed friend, Mr. William Brewster, has told 

 me he has done this successfully, but I have never been able to accom- 

 plish the feat, probably from my inability to properly imitate the 

 "squeak." An interesting account of an experiment of this character 

 is given by Stone and Cram, who say: 



"This morning, January 31, 1902, a little before noon I was crossing 

 an open clayey pasture when I heard a crow in the distance give the call 

 which means a fox in sight. Presently I saw Reynard himself trotting 



