HARVEST OF WILD PLACES 113 



we have too many foxes, as well and doubtless, in times 

 past, have had too many hunters. 



Foxes are not generally accredited with vegetarian in- 

 stincts. You never see their tracks, as you see those of 

 the rabbits, around a young oak-tree shoot which has 

 been nibbled down to the tough stem. But Msop evi- 

 dently thought otherwise when he wrote his fable of the 

 sour grapes, and there is plenty of testimony that /Esop 

 was right. Foxes do eat wild grapes, as many observers 

 have testified, climbing a considerable way to get them; 

 and probably at times they eat berries and perhaps 

 apples. I have found their tracks, at any rate, beneath 

 apple trees. I have also been confidently assured that 

 they eat the persimmons in Virginia; that the "oF houn* 

 dawgs" know how good this fruit is, too, and if you 

 wish to find the very best tree, take a "dawg" with you. 



Mr. Woodchuck, on the other hand, doesn't eat at all 

 after September. He hibernates, coming out on Candle- 

 mas Day to see his shadow and make an annual 

 "weather story" for the newspapers. Up in our pas- 

 ture one Winter the ground-hog who lives there had to 

 tunnel up through two feet of snow to get his outlook. 

 The six-inch bore by which he emerged was yellowed by 

 the dirt on his body, and he packed a hard, dirty track 

 across the snow for ten feet to a bore leading down to the 

 back entrance of his dwelling. Evidently he took some 

 exercise between the two doors. But there was not a 

 single track leading away in any direction. 



