bright, sharp eves, enable him, with wily strateg^v and 

 soft, cautious tread, to destroy nearly all kinds of ter 

 restrial bii-ds, ranging in size from the old Wild Tnr 

 key which weighs twenty-five pounds, to an Oven-bird 

 that weighs about a eouple of ounces. Of course such 

 a lack of knowledge is pardonable, for it is a known 

 fact that few i)eople who hunt in bright red clothes, 

 find time to kxik un the trail of death which almost 

 daily marks (he Red Pox's path. 'Phey know hiin sim 

 ply as a crafty and pretty creature, which by marvel 

 ous tricks is so often enabled to batHle the liounds, as 

 he speeds tli rough the valleys, across broad fields, over 

 hilltops, crossing streams, running on logs, or along 

 fence-tops, and when tired defiantly shakes his much 

 prized "bi-ush" and tossing his head, hides in the rocks. 



SHE15P-KlL,LINr. DOGS AND FOXICS. 



Some sheep-killing dogs, it is asserted, will not com- 

 mit their costly and vexatious depredations near home, 

 and many claim that the Red Fox which has his wife 

 and little ones near a farmer's hen coop will rarely 

 visit it with evil intent, unless reduced to extremity 

 by hunger's pangs. This, perhaps, is in some in- 

 stances true, but if Mr. Fleetfoot Fox does not steal 

 poultry, or .voung lambs near his burrow, so often 

 usurped, he certainly doi^s plenty of this kind of work 

 away from his home. He is built for speed, and often 

 travels over a large space of country on foraging ex 

 cursions. \Mien he leaves his vigilant wife and play- 

 ful children and hies away on these food-hunting ex- 

 peditious it is not uncommon for some neighboring rel- 

 ative who also left his family in a snug den — about 

 which bones, feathers, hair, and othei- animal remains 



