94 THE FOX. 



young foxes are wont to come out on a warm day, 

 and play like puppies in front of the den. The view 

 being unobstructed on all sides by trees or bushes, in 

 the cover of which danger might approach, they are 

 less liable to surprise and capture. On the slightest 

 sound they disappear in the hole. Those who have 

 watched the gambols of the young foxes, speak of 

 them as very amusing, even more arch and playful 

 than those of kittens, while a spirit profoundly wise 

 and cunning seems to look out of their young eyes. 

 The parent-fox can never be caught in the den with 

 them, but is hovering near the woods, which are al- 

 ways at hand, and by her warning cry or bark telling 

 them when to be on their guard. She usually has at 

 least three dens, at no great distance apart, and moves 

 stealthily in the night with her charge from one to 

 the other, so as to mislead her enemies. Many a 

 party of boys, and of men, too, discovering the where- 

 abouts of a litter, have gone with shovels and picks, 

 and, after digging away vigorously for several hours, 

 have found only an empty hole for their pains. The 

 old fox, finding her secret had been found out, had 

 waited for darkness, in the cover of which to transfer 

 her household to new quarters ; or else some old fox- 

 hunter, jealous of the preservation of his game, and 

 getting word of the intended destruction of the litter, 

 had gone at dusk the night before, and made some 

 disturbance about the den, perhaps flashed some pow- 

 der in its mouth a hint which the shrewd animal 

 knew how to interpret. 



