397 



taken from a neighborhood a search generally reveals a den 

 of young Foxes with abundant evidence of where the lost 

 poultry has gone. Chicles that are destroyed at night are 

 generally at roost near the farm buildings where a Fox dare 

 not come. A steel trap usually proves the marauder to be a 

 Skunk. Last summer one of my patrons complained of losing 

 hens eggs and blamed the domestic cat. I took an egg and 

 with the sharp point of a knife made a small hole in one end 

 of it and worked in a grain or so of strychnine and requested 

 it to be put in the nest after the hens had gone to roost, and 

 to be looked after early in the morning. The egg disappeared 

 and a full grown Skunk was found dead a few rods from the 

 hen house. Rats destroy the eggs of poultry. 



RANDALL, BISBING, Minsi, Monroe County: 



We have both Red and Gray Foxes. They occasionally take 

 a chicken or turkey for a change, but they fairly earn them 

 by catching large quantities of bugs and beetles and grasshop- 

 pers. Yet I believe if the bounty was taken off their heads they 

 would become so plentiful that they would be a great detriment 

 to poultry raisers. I have caught Foxes. Minks, Skunks, Opos- 

 sum, Wildcats and Weasels in the act of killing poultry. Can- 

 not remember the number killed. Foxes as a rule kill but one 

 bird at a time and carry it away if they have young to feed. 

 They will come for chickens every day or every other day. 

 A friend had ten young turkeys taken by Foxes this last sum- 

 mer; he found the family house and dug out two young ones, 

 Red and one Cross Bar, and this confirms a theory of mine 

 that the Cross Bar Fox is only a freak of nature. The Mink 

 and Weasel will kill from one to a dozen fowls at a time, and I 

 think the Weasel is the most destructive to poultry and Rab- 

 bits, yet they prefer Rats to Chickens, and won't kill the latter 

 as long as Rats are plenty. 



P. FRANK RANGLER, Lewisburg, Union County: 



I consider the Fox the worst enemy to our game birds. Near 

 the close of the last season I was hunting Pheasants along the 

 "White Deer Creek" well up in the mountains, when Just at 

 evening I shot a fine bird that fell on the opposite side of 

 the creek, and as I could not cross the creek without walking 

 at least a mile or get wet, I concluded to let the bird go until 

 morning, when I would hunt that side of the creek. The next 

 morning I started with the assurance of having at least one 

 dead bird to begin with, but what was my disappointment 



