202 THE FOX. 



of hostility, apprize all other animals to beware ; a caution 

 which they perfectly understand, and put into practice. The 

 hunters themselves are often informed, by the birds, of the 

 place of his retreat, and set the dogs into those thickets where 

 they see them particularly noisy and querulous. So that it 

 is the fate of this pretty plunderer to be detested by every 

 rank of animals j all the weaker classes shun, and all the 

 stronger pursue him. 



The fox, of all wild animals, is most subject to the influence 

 of climate ; and there are found as many varieties in this 

 kind almost as in any of the domestic animals. The gener- 

 ality of foxes, as is well known, are red ; but there are some 

 of a grayish cast. 



In the colder countries round the pole, the foxes are of all 

 colors ; black, blue, gray, iron gray, silver gray, white, white 

 with red legs, white with black heads, white with the tip of 

 the tail black, red with the throat and belly entirely white, 

 and lastly, with a stripe -pf black running along the back, and 

 another crossing it at the shoulders. 



Various methods are made use of to entrap these suspicious 

 animals, as steel or fox traps, and falls made of logs, &c. ; but 

 much nicety is required in setting them, or the fox will avoid 

 them. A very neat and successful mode of fixing a steel 

 trap, has been described to us. After having fixed on a place 

 which they frequent, the trap is to be opened and its exact 

 form traced on the ground, and as much earth removed as 

 will contain it without pressure ; the sod removed from the 

 top is to be laid over it, and the lines of separation covered 

 with mould, and grass stuck in it. A bait of cheese is to be 

 placed above, and in two or three places in the neighborhood, 

 and it is better to bait the spot in which the trap is set, for 

 some days previous, to remove all fear. Some of the best 

 trappers ascribe their success to the use of assafoetida, casto- 

 reum, and other analogous substances, with which they rub 

 their traps, and small twigs set up in the neighborhood, 

 alleging that these substances invariably attract the animals. 

 Crantz, in his History of Holland, informs us, that this species 



