Red Pox 



in the spring, when there are young foxes to be protected, and in 

 its tones there is a menace to all intruders. 



A fox's ears are wonderfully keen, and he depends upon 

 them much more than upon his eyesight, both in hunting and 

 in avoiding his enemies. 



This morning, January 31, 1902, a little before noon I was 

 crossing an open clayey pasture when I heard a crow in the 

 distance give the call which means a fox in sight. Presently I 

 saw Reynard himself trotting along at the edge of a pine grove; 

 when he passed behind a thick clump I ran forward a little 

 way and stopped, watching an opening among the trees where 

 I felt pretty certain he would show himself again. Sure enough, 

 in a very few minutes he appeared and trotted out across the 

 meadows. 



He was at least one hundred and fifty yards away and go- 

 ing from me, but the air was still and I squeeked like a meadow- 

 mouse, hoping that perhaps his big ears might catch the sound 

 even at that distance, though the sharpest human ears could 

 scarcely have heard so faint a noise at a tenth part of the 

 distance. 



Yet the fox heard it and stopped instantly, and turning, 

 came leaping lightly over the hassocks in my direction. Every 

 few rods he stopped, cocking his ears above the sere meadow- 

 grass to listen; then I would squeek, a little lower each time, 

 and instantly catching the direction of the sound, he would come 

 trotting towards me, using greater caution than at first, and 

 keeping under cover of the hassocks as if to avoid frightening 

 his game. When he got within fifty yards there were no more 

 hassocks or bunches of grass for concealment, only the smooth, 

 sheep-trimmed sod where I crouched in plain sight, with my back 

 to what little sun shone through the flecked and mottled clouds 

 that covered the sky. He looked at me sharply as if mistrust- 

 ing something, and if I had moved either my head or hand the 

 fraction of an inch he would have been off like an arrow to the 

 woods. But I held myself perfectly motionless, and when the ex- 

 pression of his shrewd, gray face and the set of his ears showed 

 that his suspicions were subsiding, I squeeked once more, very 

 faintly, calling him at last almost up to me. But now he saw 

 that there was certainly something wrong, and that I was neither 

 a rock or stump or even an old scare-crow; so, to make sure, he 



