54 BEACH GRASS 



on leaving this find, the tracks showed a groove 

 at intervals on the left side, as if the booty had 

 dragged at times in the snow. Turning aside 

 from the path, she had started up the hill in the 

 open field. A disturbed place in the snow, nu- 

 merous and irregular marks of foxes' feet and a 

 multitude of crow's feathers scattered about, 

 suggested that the fox had laid down the crow, 

 and had partially or wholly devoured it. As 

 there seemed to be something under the snow at 

 this point, I dug down, and there in a smooth 

 cup-shaped depression was — not the remains of 

 a crow as I had expected — but the half of a 

 freshly killed cottontail rabbit. The head and 

 foreshoulders were gone, but the skin was as 

 neatly rounded over the stump of the body, and 

 the fur was as smooth as if an expert furrier had 

 sewed up the gaping wound. 



After carefully covering up the half rabbit, 

 the fox had trotted a few yards further, climbed 

 a boulder in the field and sat down to survey her 

 cache. From the rock she had jumped three or 

 four feet to the ground, ambled across the field 

 and entered the woods. There were now no 



