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Fox-Hunting in New England. 



A HAPPY FAMILY. 



coldest winter night. Shelter from rain or snow-storms he undoubt- 

 edly will take, for he is not overfond of being bedraggled, though it 

 is certain he will sometimes take to the water and cross a stream 

 without being driven to it. 



Reynard goes wooing in February, and travels far and wide in 

 search of sweethearts, toying with every vixen he meets, but faithful 

 to none, for his love is more fleeting than the tracks he leaves in the 

 drifting snow. In April, the vixen having set her house in order by 

 clearing it of rubbish, brings forth her young, — from three to six or 

 more at a litter. This house is sometimes a burrow in sandy soil 

 with several entrances ; sometimes a den in the rocks, and sometimes, 

 in old woods, a hollow log. In four or five weeks the queer little 

 pug-nosed cubs begin to play about the entrance. The mother hunts 

 faithfully to provide them with food, and may sometimes be seen on her 

 homeward way with a fringe of field-mice hanging from her mouth. 

 About the entrance to the den may be seen the wings of domestic 

 poultry, wild ducks, and grouse, and the legs of lambs, — the frag- 

 ments of many a vulpine feast. 



It is a curious fact, and one I have never seen mentioned in print, 

 that while the cubs are dependent on the mother, a hound will only 

 follow her for a few minutes. Of the existence of this provision for 



