202 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



preached, and the deer's tracks showed in a series 

 of big leaps marking the road for a mile or so. 

 We could see where the mice had tunneled their 

 way out of the snow and the tracks of their feet 

 and tails running across the surface to the trunks 

 of trees, where they disappeared into other tun- 

 nels, and where Molly Cottontail had made little 

 paths. We found 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF A WILDCAT 



in the old wood road and everywhere about, 

 Reynard, the fox, left his trail. Now, the inter- 

 esting part about the fox's trail was this: The 

 fox had been pursued by neither man nor dog 5 

 there was nothing after it, yet every time we 

 struck a fox's trail we discovered that the hunting 

 fox was just as cautious and adopted the same 

 tactics as the ones already described as those of the 

 hunted fox. 



EVERY MUSKRAT HOUSE 



along the edge of the lake had been investigated by 

 a fox, but in no case did the fox go directly up to 

 the muskrat house. The tracks in the snow told us 

 that he first circled around the snow-covered mound 

 once or twice before he ventured to examine it and 

 mark it with his private seal; neither did the fox 

 follow a straight trail for any length of time. It 

 was plain to be seen that the animal was constantly 

 avoiding some imaginary foe; he was trying to mis- 

 lead possible pursuers. This it did by trotting 



