56 NEIGHBORS WiTH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



2. He is on the watch, yonder, between the roots of 

 an old oak; he scents something. There is nothing to 

 fear. All Nature, drunken with the influence of spring, 

 is reveling in the balmy air. With a single bound Rey- 

 nard is at the threshold. Now you can see him distinctly. 

 How he stands there ! With what a high-bred air, and 

 how conscious of his own importance ! You see at a 

 glance that noble blood rolls in his veins. He has an air 

 about him at once of dignity and daring. With such a 

 character, it is worth while to observe both him and his 

 dress somewhat closely. 



3. His forehead is low, the skin tightly drawn over 

 it, craft lurking in its very smoothness. The ear, sharply 

 pointed at the extremity, widens at the base to catch every 

 passing sound. It is made for obtaining the faintest trace 

 of the prey sleeping in the trees above; the slightest 

 noise the trembling of a leaf, the quiver of a dreaming 

 bird falls into the listening aperture ; nothing escapes 

 him. And then the nose ! How much malice and grace, 

 how much spirit, lies in that fine long, stretched-out, sup- 

 ple point ! Does it not seem as if a thousand invisible 

 feelers issued thence, and that here, as its central point, 

 is the very soul of all this contriving and treachery ? 



4. But the most interesting face is nothing if we for- 

 get the eyes. It is true, the fox's eye can not be termed 

 beautiful. You recognize in it, at once, the mighty in- 

 stinct of prey : its color plays between a gray and green ; 

 it lies askant, half hidden in the cavity, and by day drawn 

 together into a mere perpendicular chink. Now it is low- 

 ered in humble resignation, or it gazes around in simplici- 

 ty and innocence ; now a derisive smile plays about the 

 lids, and then again a look is darted forth, keen and ven- 

 omous, as though you had been struck suddenly by the 

 fangs of a viper. 



