IN THE FAR WEST. 361 



CHAPTER XV. 



FOXES. 



Foxes very numerous in the West Hunting clubs Various species and 

 varieties of foxes Difference between the American and the European 

 red iox Size, colour, characteristics, and value of fur of the prairie, 

 cross, black, silver, swift, and arctic foxes Difference between the 

 red and the grey fox The latter trees, but rarely runs to earth A 

 true woodland animal Its food Is being superseded by the red species 

 The dwarf or island fox Lives on insects Fearlessness and numbers 

 Cause of its diminutive size Value of fox-skins in commerce. 



FOXES are very numerous throughout the West, as many a 

 farmer and stock-raiser knows to his sorrow ; but instead of 

 utilizing them as objects of the chase, and getting madly 

 enthusiastic over the runs they afford, they destroy them in a 

 more practical manner by spreading strychnine over meat and 

 placing it where it will do most good ; by capturing them in 

 traps made of steel, and by shooting them as they take to 

 their familiar runways when roused by the baying of many 

 mongrels. 



Grand battues are sometimes held, and a section of country 

 is then almost cleared of them, for few can escape the circle 

 of hunters that drive them towards a centre, and shoot 

 them down as they run about in a bewildered manner, or 

 catch them by the neck or tail and knock their heads against a 

 tree or a rock. These people have no time to waste on senti- 

 mental dashes and the music of the hounds, and a fox is to 

 them only a midnight assassin that preys on their poultry. 

 " Gone away/' is not a pleasant sentence to them, as it means 

 that they have lost four or five dollars-worth of fur, and that 

 their farmyard will soon be in mourning for defunct fowls, which 

 arc considered of more value than all the living foxes in the 

 neighbourhood. 



