tion, according to fox hunters. He is 

 suspicious, and only the pangs of hun- 

 ger can goad him into reckless actions. 

 Then he becomes bold. Once a fox, 

 which was being hunted by hounds and 

 had twice heard the shot whizzing by, 

 seized a sick hare in his flight and car- 

 ried it with him a considerable distance. 

 Another was surrounded in a field; he 

 came out, attacked a wounded hare, 

 killed it before the eyes of the hunts- 

 men, rapidly buried it in the snov/, and 

 then fled directly through the line 

 formed by the sportsmen. 



Litters of young foxes are born 

 about the end of April or the beginning 

 of May. Their number varies between 

 three and twelve. 



Lenz had a tame female fox which he 

 received just as she was beginning to 

 eat solid food, but had already become 

 so vicious and so much addicted to bit- 

 ing that she always growled when eating 

 her favorite food and bit right and left 

 into straw and wood, even when nobody 

 was disturbing her. Kind treatment 

 soon made her so tame that she would 

 allow him to take a freshly-killed rabbit 

 out of her bloody mouth and insert his 

 fingers instead. Even when grown up 

 she liked to play with him, was demon- 

 strative in her joy when he visited her. 



wagged her tail, whined, and jumped 

 around. She was just as much pleased' 

 to see a stranger, and she distinguished 

 strangers at adistanceof fifty paces, when 

 they were turning the corner of the 

 house, and with loud cries would invite 

 them to come up to her, an honor which 

 she never accorded either to him or his 

 brother, who usually fed her, probably 

 because she knew they would do so 

 anyway. 



Reynard has been known to attack 

 and kill young calves and lambs, and if 

 the seashore is near will revel in oysters 

 and shellfish. A group of rabbits are 

 feeding in a clover-patch. He'll crawl 

 along, nibbling the juicy flowers until 

 near enough to make a grab. He'll 

 stalk a bird, with his hind legs dragging 

 behind him, until near enough to 

 spring. How farmers dread his inroads 

 in the poultry yard! Fasten the yard 

 up tight and he will burrow a winding 

 passage into the ground beneath and 

 suddenly appear among the drowsy 

 chickens and stupid geese, whose shrill 

 and alarmed cries arouse the farmer 

 from his bed to sally forth, finding all 

 safe. Then the fox will sneak back 

 and pack away with the plumpest 

 pullet or the fattest goose. 



AMONG ANIMALS. 



The deer really weeps, its eyes being 

 provided with lachrymal glands. 



Ants have brains larger in proportion 

 to the size of their bodies than any 

 other living creature. 



There are three varieties of the dog 

 that never bark — the Australian dog, 

 the Egyptian shepherd dog and the 

 *'lion-headed" dog of Tibet. 



The insect known as the water boat- 

 man has a regular pair of oars, his legs 

 being used as such. He swims on his 

 back, as in this position there is less re- 

 sistance to his progress. 



Seventeen parcels of ants' eggs from 

 Russia, weighing 550 pounds, were sold 

 in Berlin recently for 20 cents a pound. 



The peacock is now kept entirely, it 

 would seem, for ornament — for the or- 



nament of garden terraces (among old- 

 fashioned and trim-kept yew hedges he 

 is specially in place) — in hislivingstate, 

 and for various aesthetic uses to which 

 his brilliant plumage and hundred-eyed 

 tailfeathers are put when he is dead or 

 moulting. But we seldom eat him now, 

 though he used to figure with the boar's 

 head, the swan and the baron of beef 

 on those boards which were beloved by 

 our forefathers, more valiant trencher- 

 men than ourselves. Yet young pea- 

 hen is uncommonly good eating, even 

 now, at the end of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, and in the craze that some people 

 have for new birds — Argus pheasants, 

 Reeve's pheasants, golden pheasants 

 and what not — to stock their coverts, 

 it is a wonder that some one has not 

 tried a sprinkling of peacocks. 



185 



