380 



bright, sharp eves, enable him, with wily strateg\- and 

 soft, cautious tread, to destroy nearly all kinds of ter 

 restrial birds, ranging in size from the old Wild Tur- 

 key which weiglis twenty-five pounds, to an Oven-bird 

 that weighs about a C0'U])1(! of ounces. Of course such 

 a lack of kni)w ledge is pardonable, for it is a known 

 fact that few people who hunt in bright red clothes, 

 find time to look oai the trail of death which almost 

 daily marks the Ked Fox's path. They know him sim- 

 ply as a crafty and pretty creature, which by marvel- 

 ous tricks is so often enabled to baffle the liounds, as 

 he speeds through the valleys, across broad fields, over 

 hill-tops, crossing streams, running on logs, or along 

 fence-tops, and when tired defiantly shakes his much- 

 prized "biush" and tossing his head, hides in the rocks. 



SHEEP-KILLING DOGS AND FOXES. 



Some sheep-killing dogs, it is asserted, will not com- 

 mit their costly aud vexatious depredations near home, 

 and many claim that the Red Fox which has his wife 

 and little ones near a farmer's hen coop will rarely 

 visit it with evil intent, unless reduced to extremity 

 by hunger's pangs. This, perhaps, is in some in- 

 stances true, but if Mr. Fleetfoot Fox does not steal 

 poultry, or young lambs near his burrow, so often 

 usurped, he certainly does plenty of this kind of work 

 away from his home. He is built for speed, and often 

 travels over a large space of conntry on foraging ex- 

 cursions. \Mien he leaves his vigilant wife and play- 

 ful children and hies away on these food-hunting ex- 

 peditions it is not uncommon for some neighboring rel- 

 ative who also left his family in a snug den — about 

 which bones, feathers, hair, and other animal icmains 



