!»6 



With Rod and Gun in New England 



Instinctively I jumped for the animal, giving a loud shout at the same 

 time, hoping that he would drop the bird. For a moment he stood as if 

 paralyzed with astonishment, and then, with the speed almost of electricity, 

 he darted into the woods and disappeared. 



" Yes, the fox is terribly destructive," said the Doctor, when I returned 

 to camp and related my adventure. 



"He is one of the worst enemies to game birds in the whole list," 

 added the Judge ; " I know of hardly any animal that is more voracious." 



" Yes," I replied, " he does more to keep game birds reduced in num- 

 bers than almost any other animal,* and even young deer are killed by the 

 marauder." 



The common fox, Vulpes fulvous (Richardson), is well known in almost 

 all sections of the country. I am sorry to say it is growing abundant in 

 some of the public parks around Boston, and unless measures are taken 

 for its destruction it will exterminate the game birds which are now pro- 

 tected from sportsmen in those preserves. It is now much hunted with 

 packs of fox hounds, and the sport derived from it is very great. There 

 is in New England a considerable number of kennels of these hounds, 

 and the taste for the sport is increasing. 



The general character and habits of the fox are so well known that a 

 description of them is hardly needed here ; his cunning is so great that it 

 has passed into a proverb, trapping him being almost impossible. At the 

 breeding season, and while the young are provided for by the old ones, 

 the cunning in a great measure gives place to the desire to furnish an 

 abundant supply of food for the young. In the summer of 1858, near the 

 house in which I was residing in Dorchester, Mass., now a part of Boston, 

 a pair of foxes had burrowed and had a litter of four young ; the burrow 

 was on the south side of a low hill, in a thicket of huckleberry bushes. 

 There would have been some sagacity displayed in the choice of neighbor- 

 hood, this locality being surrounded by a number of farms, each with a 

 nice flock of poultry, were it not for the fact that the little patch of bushes 

 and scrub-trees, where they had chosen their home, was scarcely an acre 

 in extent, and of course was more or less familiar to every boy in the 

 neighborhood. Presently, several hens were missing from one flock, and 

 others missing from neighboring pens led to inquiries which resulted in 

 the discovery of the fact that a fox had been seen running across the fields 

 to this thicket. Search was made, and the home of Reynard found. The 

 burrow extending beneath a ledge of rocks, no attempt was made to dig 



* A correspondent of Shooting and Fishing discovered a fox's burrow ; 

 on partially digging it out he found in it four partridges, a large hen, and a 

 woodchuck. Four days later he completed the work of unearthing the 

 family of five foxes, when he found eight partridges, three rabbits, and 

 another very large woodchuck. 



