WOLF AND FOX. 431 



Dr. Eae also informs me with regard to wolves, that 

 * they have been frequently known to take the bait from 

 a gun without injury to themselves, by first cutting the 

 line of communication between the two.' ^ He adds : — 



I may also mention what I have been told, although I have 

 never had an opportunity of seeing it, that wolves watch the 

 fishermen who set lines in deep water for trout, through holes 

 in the ice on Lake Superior, and very soon after the man has 

 left, the wolf goes up to the place, takes hold of the stick which 

 is placed across the hole and attached to the line, trots off with 

 it along the ice until the bait is brought to the surface, then 

 returns and eats the bait and the fish, if any happens to be on 

 the hook. The trout of Lake Superior are very large, and the 

 baits are of a size in proportion. 



Mr. Murray Browne, Inspector of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board, writes to me from Whitehall as follows : — 



I once, at the Devil's Glen, Wicklow, found a fox fast in a 

 trap by the foot. We did not like to touch him, but got sticks 

 and poked at the trap till we got it open. The process took 

 ten minutes or a quarter-hour. When first we came up 

 the fox strained to get free, and looked frightfully savage ; but 

 we had not poked at the trap more than a very short time 

 before the whole expression of his face changed, he lay perfectly 

 quiet (though we must at times have hurt him) ; and when at 

 last we had got the trap completely off his foot, he still lay quiet, 



reflection it really is not so, for if the trench is to be a shelter one — 

 thinking, as the fox must have done, that the gun or something coming 

 from it was the danger to be protected from or guarded against — it 

 must be made across the line of fire, for if scratched in the direction of 

 fire it would afford little or no protection or concealment, and the 

 reasoning power or intelligence of the fox would be at fault. 



' My belief is that one of these knowing foxes had seen his or her 

 companion shot, or found it dead shortly after it had been killed, and 

 not unnaturally attributed the cause of the mishap to the only strange 

 thing it saw near, namely, the gun. 



' It was evident that in all cases they had studied the situation care- 

 fully, as was sufl&ciently shown by their tracks in the snow, which 

 indicated their extremely cautious approach when either the string- 

 cutting or trench-making dodge was resorted to, in attempting to obtain 

 the coveted bait without injury to themselves.' 



' It will be remembered that, from evidence previously detailed, 

 both the wolverine or glutton and certain deer have been shown capable 

 of similarly obviating the danger of gun-traps. 



