Mammal Study 



257 



Fox cubs. 



THE FOX 



Teacher's Story 



O WE not always, on a clear morning of winter, feel a 

 thrill that must have something primitive in its 

 quality, at seeing certain tracks in the snow that 

 somehow suggest wildness and freedom! Such 

 is the track of the fox. Although it is somewhat 

 -;like that of a small dog yet it is very different. 

 The fox has longer legs than most dogs of his 

 weight, and there is more of freedom in his track 

 and more of strength and agility expressed in it. 

 His gait is usually an easy lope; this places the 

 imprint of three feet in a line, one ahead of 

 another, but the fourth is off a little at one side, as if to keep the balance. 

 The fox lives in a den or burrow. The only fox home which I ever 

 saw, was a rather deep cave beneath the roots of a stump, and there was 

 no burrow or retreat beyond it. However, foxes often select woodchuck 

 burrows, or make burrows of their own, and if they are caught within, 

 they can dig rapidly, as many a hunter can attest. The mother usually 

 selects an open place for a den for the young foxes; often an open field or 

 side-hill is chosen for this. The den is carpeted with grass and is a very 

 comfortable place for the fox puppies. The den of the father fox is 

 usually not far away. 



The face of the red fox shows plainly why he has been able to cope with 

 man, and thrive despite and because of him. If ever a face showed 

 cunning, it is his. Its pointed, slender nose gives it an expression of 

 extreme cleverness, while the width of the head between the upstanding, 

 triangular ears gives room for a brain of power. In color the fox is russet- 

 red, the hind quarters being grayish. The legs are black outside and 

 white inside ; the throat is white, and the broad, triangular ears are tipped 

 with black. The glory of the fox is his "brush," as the beautiful, bushy 

 tail is called. This is red, with black toward the end and white-tipped. 

 This tail is not merely for beauty, for it affords the fox warmth during the 

 winter, as any one may see who has observed the way it is wrapped 



