302 



OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



circumstances, I for a moment see the rabbit 

 making tracks. Ten to one he makes them down 

 hill, for in that direction lies the cedar swamp in 

 whose almost impassable tangle he finds safety. 

 Great tracks these are, too, his short forelegs 

 just serving to catch and balance his plunge for 

 a second, then the long hind ones coming wide 

 of these, outside, and landing far in advance. 

 They really look as if the animal might have 

 made them by turning handsprings as he went. 



I never see a fox by trailing him. He goes 

 much too rapidly and ranges too far. Yet the 

 fox has an interesting habit of following a more 

 or less regular route. Even when the dogs are 

 after him he often sticks to his known trail and 

 the hunters take advantage of this, waiting along 

 his knov^n route and shooting him as he lopes by, 

 easily outrunning the dogs and as likely as not 

 grinning over his shoulder at their lumbering 

 eagerness. It is all a game to him and if man 

 would keep out of it the fox would always win. 

 The way to see a fox in the woods is to figure 

 out his accustomed route and sit cosily by it. He 

 likes best to hunt in the dim beginnings of dawn 

 and again at the evening twilight or by the light 

 of the moon. But often a fox may be seen jog- 



