TRACKS IN THE SAND 53 



these places the foxy odor was particularly strong. 



His course was generally direct but he had 

 turned aside to investigate every hole. He had 

 examined both ends of a small culvert under- 

 neath the wood-road and he had paused to drink 

 at a brook. Arrived at a wire fence for sheep 

 he had, without hesitation and very deftly, 

 jumped through one of the small square openings 

 between the wires. On emerging from the en- 

 closure he had run up over the hill to the tracks 

 of another fox. In these he stepped so carefully 

 that the tracks appeared to be those of only one 

 fox. After thirty yards of this Indian file, the 

 tracks separated, one going to the left, the other 

 to the right. I followed the latter, and from in- 

 dications that were found later, it is evident that 

 I had unwittingly abandoned the chase of the 

 dog fox and was on the trail of a female fox or 

 vixen. 



The lady soon turned aside and scratched 

 away the snow and pine needles at the foot of a 

 tree, and, if one were to judge from the feathers, 

 she had discovered a crow and a dead one, tor 

 there were no crow tracks near. Immediately 



