THE MOTHER MURRE 71 



On one of the large estates here in Hingham, a 

 few weeks ago, a fox was found to be destroying 

 poultry. The time of the raids, and their boldness, 

 were proof enough that the fox must be a female 

 with young. Poisoned meat was prepared for her, 

 and at once the raids ceased. A few days later one 

 of the workmen of the estate came upon the den of 

 a fox, at the mouth of which lay dead a whole litter 

 of young ones. They had been poisoned. The 

 mother had not eaten the prepared food herself, but 

 had carried it home to her family. They must have 

 died in the burrow, for it was evident from the signs 

 that she had dragged them into the fresh air to re- 

 vive them, and deposited them gently on the sand 

 by the hole. Then in her perplexity she had brought 

 various tidbits of mouse and bird and rabbit, which 

 she placed at their noses to tempt them to wake up 

 out of their strange sleep and eat. No one knows how 

 long she watched beside the lifeless forms, nor what 

 her emotions were. She must have left the neighbor- 

 hood soon after, however, for no one has seen her 

 since about the estate. 



The bird mother is the bravest, tenderest, most 

 appealing thing one ever comes upon in the fields. 

 It is the rare exception, but we sometimes find the 

 real mother wholly lacking among the birds, as in 

 the case of our notorious cowbird, who sneaks about, 

 watching her chance, when some smaller bird is 

 gone, to drop her egg into its nest. The egg must 



